The Office of Homeland Security Situational Awareness (OSA) strives to provide the right homeland security information, to the right customers, at the right time – fostering shared understanding and decision making.
OSA serves as a bridge for sharing critical information – delivering strategic situational awareness, a common operating picture, and decision support – to DHS Leadership, all levels of government, and other partners involved in homeland security (i.e., the Homeland Security Enterprise). OSA, through the National Operations Center (NOC), is the principal entity with the national-level situational awareness mandate to share information on threats, incidents, hazards, and events that impact the Nation (as codified by 6 USC 321d).
The Office of Homeland Security Situational Awareness is led by:
- Director Christopher Tomney,
- Deputy Director Frank DiFalco, and
- Chief of Staff Todd Heinz
Our Divisions are led by:
- Integration Division Director Shawn Phillips,
- National Operations Center Director Dan McGough, and
- Mission Support Division Director Barbara Saliunas
OUR MISSION: To provide situational awareness, a common operating picture, and decision support for the Homeland Security Enterprise on threats, incidents, hazards, and events impacting the homeland
OSA’s mission supports the Homeland Security Enterprise – our customers include DHS leadership, the entire Federal Government; State, local, tribal, and territorial governments; the private sector; and international partners.
OSA fulfills its mission by working to Understand, Inform, and Connect:
- Understand. OSA monitors the Nation and world 24/7/365. We seek to quickly understand the “who, what, when, and where” of significant threats, incidents, hazards, events, and strategic operational issues related to homeland security and their potential impacts.
We do this by consolidating and integrating reporting from other DHS Components, the broader Homeland Security Enterprise, and publicly available information.
- Inform. OSA distributes data and information to DHS Leadership, Components, and our partners to enhance their awareness and create a common understanding about the current strategic-level homeland security operating environment and relevant threats, incidents, hazards, events, or issues.
- We publish alerts and notifications on critical developments and incidents, steady-state operations and actions, issues of interest, and emerging areas of concern.
We also maintain mechanisms to help fill our partners’ information needs by providing a common operating picture, along with integrated platforms and geospatial capabilities they can leverage.
- Connect. OSA connects people, events, and information by integrating siloed information to create a holistic picture.
- We promote the exchange of information among our partners, provide executive communications support to DHS Leadership, and establish information exchange requirements, venues, and forums.
- We are an organization of partnerships; our relationships are foundational elements of our efforts. To fulfill our mission OSA builds relationships – in DHS and between partners. Our unique touchpoints across law enforcement and government facilitate our collective efforts and bolster our shared responsibilities to maintain real time, critical homeland security awareness.
The Office of Homeland Security Situational Awareness was created in December 2022, when the refocused Office of Operations Coordination mission was signed into law through the FY23 budget.
OSA has three Divisions (shown in our Office of Homeland Security Situational Awareness Organizational Chart).
National Operations Center Watch
The National Operations Center (NOC) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The NOC is the Nation’s primary national-level hub for situational awareness, a common operating picture, information fusion and sharing, and executive communications. The NOC provides:
- Senior-leader decision making support through timely reporting derived from traditional and social media monitoring, as well as from DHS Components and our other partners;
- Information sharing with our partners by maintaining information dissemination tools and collaborative forums such as a common operating picture, the Virtual Situation Room, and several Communities of Interest on the Homeland Security Information Network;
- A rotational detail program – allowing state, local, and other law enforcement partners to work on the NOC Watch floor – to help efficiently share information between the Federal Government and state and local responders; and
- Executive-level communications capabilities connecting senior leaders together to facilitate unity of effort and incident management efforts.
OSA Integration and Mission Support Elements
Two OSA elements work with and support the NOC Watch’s incident driven reporting and actions to deliver situational awareness and provide OSA continuity and logistical support. They:
- Support and enhance Senior Leadership situational awareness at the outset of threats or incidents that may require broad Departmental support;
- Expand the breadth and depth of situational awareness, providing deeper context on topics;
- Enhance the scope of reporting, to include strategic and longer-term incidents/events/topics;
- Advance Department-level, forefront capabilities for information management;
- Expand OSA’s partnerships and engagement;
- Provide the administrative backbone supporting OSA’s efforts; and
- Ensure OSA’s missions are not interrupted during continuity operations.
OSA’s success is based on our partnerships and our ability to obtain and share relevant information. If you are a Federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial law enforcement agency or government agency representative and are interested in connecting with OSA, or have non-emergent issues or questions, please reach out to OSAEngagement-mbx@hq.dhs.gov.