File photo of a GPS satellite

BEIJING (Dow Jones)–China has begun operating a homegrown satellite navigation service that is designed to provide an alternative to the U.S. Global Positioning System and, according to defense experts, could help the Chinese military to identify, track and strike U.S. ships in the region in the event of armed conflict.

The Beidou Navigation Satellite System started providing initial positioning, navigation and timing services to China and its “surrounding areas” on Tuesday, Ran Chengqi, a spokesman for the system, told a news conference.

He said China had so far launched 10 satellites for the Beidou system, including one this month, and planned to put six more in orbit in 2012 to enhance the system’s accuracy and expand its service to cover most of the Asia Pacific region.

The system isn’t believed to be as accurate as the U.S. GPS. Nonetheless, China has made significant advances in the field thanks to a spate of satellite launches since 2009, according to a paper by Eric Hagt and Matthew Durnin published in the Journal of Strategic Studies in October.

“Although China still has a long way to go before it has continuous real-time tactical coverage, even of a regional maritime environment, it now has frequent and dependable coverage of stationary targets and at least a basic ability to identify, track and target vessels at sea,” they wrote.

“Based purely on capabilities, with a space-based reconnaissance system as the backbone, China is clearly acquiring greater ability not only to defend against intruding aircraft carriers but to project force as well.”

China’s Ministry of Defense didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Beidou–which means Big Dipper in Mandarin–is run by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., one of the main state-owned contractors for the Chinese space program, which is largely controlled by the Chinese military.

China began building Beidou in 2000 with the goal of creating its own global system– called Compass–with 35 satellites, by 2020. The only other operational global system apart from GPS is Russia’s Glonass, although the European Union’s Galileo system is due to be completed by 2020.

Beidou, like GPS, will provide free civilian services that can be used in conjunction with commercially developed applications for use by drivers in private cars, monitor commercial trucks and ships and assist in natural disasters. It has the added advantage of supporting SMS messages, according to Mr. Ran.

He didn’t mention potential military applications at the news conference, a transcript of which was provided by the information office of China’s State Council, or Cabinet.

But the system will also give the Chinese military an alternative to GPS, which was developed by the Pentagon and is still controlled by the U.S. government. The U.S. could, in theory, disable or deny access to the system by others in the event of a conflict, although it says it never has done so in the past.

Military experts see Beidou as part of China’s efforts over the last 15 years to develop capabilities designed to deny or hinder U.S. naval access to waters around its shores in case Washington tries to intervene in a conflict–over Taiwan, for example, which Beijing sees as a rebel province.

The South China Sea is another potential flashpoint as tensions have been rising this year between China and neighboring countries that also claim territorial waters there. Beijing has repeatedly accused the U.S. of meddling in the issue and has warned it to cease surveillance operations in the area.

This year, China confirmed for the first time that it was developing an antiship ballistic missile that the Pentagon says may already be basically operational and eventually capable of hitting a moving aircraft carrier up to 1,700 miles, or 2,700 kilometers, from China’s shores.

Beidou could be used in conjunction with other satellites, drones and related technology to help track U.S. ships, position its own submarines and other vessels, and guide antiship ballistic missiles towards their targets, according to military experts.

It also gives China a significant tactical advantage over neighbors with whom it has territorial disputes, including India, which is developing its own regional satellite navigation system but doesn’t expect to complete it for several years.

China still lags behind the U.S in terms of how long, and how accurately, it can monitor any part of the globe from space: GPS, which was launched for civilian use in 1995, now consists of 30 satellites and can be accurate to within less than 10 meters, or 33 feet, although the U.S. military has access to more precise readings.

Mr. Ran said Beidou was accurate to within 25 meters and would reduce that to 10 meters by the end of next year. The Chinese military may also have access to more accurate data, but because China has fewer satellites, it cannot monitor the same spot for as long as the U.S.

China’s plans to develop a satellite positioning system are thought to date back to 1983 when Ronald Reagan announced plans to build space-based missile-defense systems in what became known as his “Star Wars” speech.

Beijing’s plans gained momentum after its military leaders noted the importance of GPS for U.S. forces during the first Gulf War in 1991. Five years later, Chinese military commanders were frustrated when they couldn’t locate two carrier groups that the U.S. deployed near Taiwan after China fired missiles into the sea off the island’s coast in a failed attempt to influence the outcome of an election there, according to several defense analysts.

China launched the first two satellites of an experimental system called Beidou-1 in 2000 and made it available to civilians in 2004, but the service wasn’t popular as its associated devices used to access the system–called terminals–were relatively large and much more expensive than GPS ones.

The system has been used, however, to coordinate the movement of Chinese troops, to help border guards patrol in remote areas, and to track fishing vessels in the South China Sea, according to Chinese state media.

In 2007, China launched the first satellite of its second-generation system, called Beidou-2, which is thought to use cheaper terminals and, unlike its predecessor, doesn’t require a ground station.

Mr. Ran said Beidou was now being used by more than 100,000 clients in China and had been used to help track government vehicles in the southern province of Guangdong, and to assist disaster-relief work after an earthquake in the western province of Sichuan in 2008.

He said it was compatible with the world’s other major global satellite navigation systems, and encouraged Chinese and foreign enterprises to help develop terminals that could use the Chinese network.

A preliminary version of the system’s Interface Control Document, which allows foreign and Chinese entities access to its basic technical data, was made available on the system’s website, beidou.gov.cn, from Tuesday, he said.

-By Jeremy Page, The Wall Street Journal

New York Harbor. Courtesy NOAA

NOAA’s development of a new navigational chart processing system, designed to meet the changing needs of the maritime community, moves into initial limited production on September 21. The new system, which slims down the current map production process while it beefs up performance, represents a technological leap forward in creating the navigational charts used to speed ships and products safety through the nation’s maritime transportation system.

“NOAA regularly updates over a thousand nautical charts, adding data and making corrections that are critical to a wide use of applications,” explains Capt. John Lowell, director of the Office of Coast Survey. “To produce more navigation products, faster, we developed a single source production system that produces all NOAA chart products from one central database instead of the two production lines used since charting technologies first started changing in the mid-1990s.”

With greater efficiencies and versatility, the system speeds chart updates to users; presents opportunities for private industry development of customized products; and improves data exchange capabilities for multiple maritime uses. For instance, the system will integrate with other information for ocean planning and other coastal uses.

Notably, with the efficiencies gained from the new system, Coast Survey can produce more navigation products, with flexible access to more data, without a corresponding increase in budget or personnel.

In October 2004, the Office of Coast Survey began the production improvement project with Fairfax, Va.-based ManTech International Corporation, and ESRI, a leading provider of GIS technology based in Redlands, Calif. Their goal, coming to fruition now, was to develop an integrated production system for NOAA chart production.

“Technological advancements are spurring a revolution in nautical charts, and navigators need flexibility and increased access to data that mariners from the last century could only dream about,” Lowell said. “The system we developed with ManTech and ESRI provides the platform for a wide range of new applications for commercial mariners, recreational boaters and, indeed, for coastal planners along the nation’s 95,000 miles of coastline.”

While the new system moves into initial production this month, the transition of data covering all U.S. waters will take several years, progressing in sets of charts as geographically located in U.S. Coast Guard Districts. As the data is transitioned to the new system, chart users will see more congruity between paper charts that are now produced on one system and electronic charts produced on another. Under the new system, cartographers will enter the same data into a single system and the changes will be sped along to all associated products.
NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey has been the Nation’s trusted source of navigational charts and data since it was organized in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson. Today, mariners and other users download nearly 300 million free navigational charts annually from  www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov. Users can get fast notice of updates to electronic nautical charts from Coast Survey’s Twitter updates.\

Via NOAA

Photographer Scott Barnhill and I were delivering S/Y Downtime back from Block Island and the Chemical Pioneer was in the process of dropping off their pilot as we were approaching Beavertail Light at the mouth of Narragansett Bay.  We were looking as if we would pass them port-to-port, but after they dropped the pilot off, they turned  sharply to port and were crawling along at a couple knots of speed.  It was now a crossing situation.

There was deep water all around and from my perspective, it appeared we were the stand-on vessel.

I radioed the ship to clarify their intentions and to see how they held us for a CPA.  The english-speaking (quite likely American) mate on watch quickly responded and said that they were about to resume their outbound voyage and asked that we alter course and come down their starboard side.

Roger that.

It was a no-brainer situation, and taking their stern was the obvious choice, BUT, I knew that if I altered course to port without communicating that with the Chemical Pioneer, I would have been in violation of Rule 17(c) of COLREGS, and most certainly taken a severe beating from the gCaptain readership.

So, any comments from the peanut gallery?

New members of the panel are:

• Dr. Lawson W. Brigham, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geography Program
• Stephen Carmel, Maersk Line, Ltd.
• Jeffrey Carothers, Fugro Consultants, Inc.
• Dr. Michele Dionne, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
• William Hanson, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC
• Dr. David A. Jay, Portland State University, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
• Joyce Miller, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
• Scott R. Perkins, Wilson & Company, Inc.
• Susan Shingledecker, BoatUS Foundation

The new members join current members:

• Edmund Welch, Passenger Vessel Association (panel chair)
• Captain Sherri Hickman, Houston Pilots
• Captain Thomas Jacobsen, Jacobsen Pilot Services, Inc.
• Dr. Gary A. Jeffress, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, Geographic Information Science
• Ramon Torres Morales, InterAmerican University, Puerto Rico
• Matthew Wellslager, South Carolina Geodetic Survey (reappointed)

The new panel members attended a navigation services orientation briefing on March 24-25, in Silver Spring, Md.  NOAA’s navigation services offices – the Office of Coast Survey, National Geodetic Survey, and the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services – presented some of the national challenges the panel will explore in the months and years ahead.

“The maritime and coastal challenges are immense, and we need to involve private industry and academia to help us determine the most effective responses,” Spring explained. “Whether it is ensuring safe navigation through new Arctic transit routes, hastening the re-opening of ports after hurricanes and other emergencies, acquiring coastal data that also serves additional uses such as science and marine spatial planning, or any number of other challenges, NOAA will gain immense benefit from advice offered by this panel.”

The panel provides advice and recommendations on hydrographic surveying; nautical charting; water level and current measurements; geodetic measurements; shoreline mapping; and technologies relating to operations, research and development, and dissemination of data.

The Hydrographic Services Review Panel was established in 2003 as directed by the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 2002. The panel functions in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and advises the NOAA administrator on matters related to NOAA’s hydrographic and navigation services.

Via NOAA

The expansion means that ships operating in the harsh Arctic environment can automatically receive vital information about navigational and meteorological hazards and other urgent information to shipping, via five new navigational areas (NAVAREAs) and meteorological areas (METAREAs), as delineated by IMO and WMO respectively.

Following their establishment, in June 2010, the five Arctic NAVAREAs/METAREAs are currently in an “Initial Operational Capability” phase with a transition to “Full Operational Capability” expected in the coming June.

IMO Secretary-General Mitropoulos heralded the expansion of WWNWS into Arctic waters as a very significant development, needed to address the increased risks to ships from a combination of expanding business activity in the inhospitable Arctic region and less predictable, more extreme, weather conditions. “The potential for accidents and for causing environmental harm through operational mishaps in the Arctic is rising, while the effectiveness of search and rescue services and clean-up resources is inevitably stretched to the limit.” he said.

“The opening up of the Arctic will be a double-edged sword. Depending on your perspective, it represents either a world of new business opportunities or, on the other hand, an unwelcome extension of the human footprint into areas still, at the moment, predominantly pristine. But I am confident that, balancing the two extremes and with measures such as those we inaugurate today, the pioneering venture in the new frontiers will be met with universal approval.  Let us, therefore, work together to create the conditions that will allow the opportunities the Arctic presents to flourish in a framework of utter safety and environmental protection,” Mr. Mitropoulos said.

“Sea ice is projected to increasingly shrink under all scenarios and for some projections the Arctic late-summer sea ice would vanish almost entirely by the middle of the century, opening unprecedented challenges to maritime safety which were unpredictable just one generation ago,” Mr. Jarraud said.

“With the establishment of these NAVAREAS the world is fully provided with services to provide navigational and meteorological warnings to mariners. We can now say that the WWNWS that started in the early 1970’s is complete. A service which is not only very useful but vital to the safety of navigation and protection of the marine environment will be provided to mariners and vessels cruising within this environmentally sensitive Arctic region,” added Admiral Maratos.

The World-Wide Navigational Warning System (WWNWS) in the Arctic
The WWNWS was established by IMO, in collaboration with IHO, in the late 1970s, and the world’s oceans were divided into l6 NAVAREAs, with one designated country in each area responsible for disseminating navigational information.  METAREAs, with identical limits, were also subsequently established.

The need to expand this service into the Arctic area was brought to the attention of IMO in 2005, as Arctic waters were becoming increasingly accessible with less predictable, more extreme weather, adding up to increased risk and  potential for accidents and environmental harm, thereby requiring accurate early warning systems in place to maximize operational safety and minimize environmental damage.

In 2006, the COMSAR Sub-Committee established the joint IMO/IHO/WMO correspondence group on Arctic Maritime Safety Information services to take up this work in detail. COMSAR 12, in 2008, agreed that a common broadcast system for Maritime Safety Information (MSI) was required for the Arctic region. It also agreed that, until an Arctic satellite service provider under the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) was available, high-frequency narrow-band direct printing was a viable alternative means of promulgation of MSI above the high latitude limits of Inmarsat coverage.

In 2009, the COMSAR Sub-Committee endorsed the recommendation of the correspondence group for live testing of the Arctic NAVAREA/METAREA operations to be held in 2009 and 2010, with a milestone goal of “Full Operational Status” being declared at COMSAR 15 in 2011, which has now been met.

Responsibility for Arctic NAVAREA Coordinators and the METAREA Issuing Services has been assumed by Canada, Norway and the Russian Federation (NAVAREA/METAREA XVII – Canada; NAVAREA/METAREA XVIII – Canada; NAVAREA/METAREA XIX – Norway; NAVAREA/METAREA XX- Russian Federation; NAVAREA/METAREA XXI – Russian Federation).

(c) International Maritime Organization

Photo via International Arctic Research Center’s Beaufort Sea Cruise blog

These days, buoys can be “intelligent” in that they have radar reflectors to help them show up on ship radars, possibly fitted with electronic beacons that show up on electronic charts and even made individually identifiable through their own Automated Identification System signatures. Buoys still remain very useful indeed.

It is the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) which provides the global pattern for the maritime buoyage system. It established an internationally-accepted system in 1970 which set the colours, shapes, topmarks , lights etc for buoys, so that seafarers can use them around the world, even though there remain some differences between the two geographical zones with which history has left the industry.

The mariner uses buoys much as he always has, as an indication of his position and to show him the extent of a navigable channel, or to mark an isolated hazard, such as a wreck over which his ship should not pass. Buoys use distinguishing colours, marks and shapes to assist the navigator in their use. The new system provides for a newly designed wreck marking buoy, and clearer distinguishing marks, along with provisions for more use of electronics and some ingenious new methods of lighting.
One problem with channel buoys in particular is that when viewed against a well-lit coastline, they are hard to distinguish from lights ashore in the background. This is a particular problem approaching a coast or port. However, it is now possible to synchronise the flashes of lights along a channel, so that they either flash together, or in sequence, which makes them far easier to distinguish from others. Confusion can also be reduced by the use of “flickering” lights, rather than the traditional signals which provide for long, short or quick-flashing signals.

The new system which was agreed by IALA earlier this year is given wide promulgation through the International Maritime Organization and is very much a system that will permit future electronic developments. These might include provisions for more electronic navigation and even the use of “virtual” buoys that would be shown on an electronic chart.
With any changes to navigation systems, great care has to be taken to ensure that changes are minimal, and do not cause confusion in an international industry.

Source: BIMCO

I also miss single-function electronics. Sure I enjoy viewing AIS, radar and propulsion information on one screen but, the problem is, now all the alarms sound the same.

The modern bridge has become a visually enticing environment but it neglects the other senses. Yes you can still feel the ship’s motion but you can’t smell the cargo from a modern CCR, or feel the wind from inside a climate controlled bridge wing, or hear the increasingly rapid ticks of the gyro when the helmsman gets sleepy.

The future of marine electronics and integrated bridge technology will include terms like ergonomics, tactile response and acoustic resonance. You won’t need to know the meaning of these terms but they will work together to engage the watchstander by switching on all 5 of his senses.

While I don’t predict a return of smell-o-vision, I do see a future in which naval architects borrow ideas from Hollywood and theme park designers to improve the situational awareness of watchstanders.

Answer: 22:24 to 23:45

There are three watches aboard ship 00-04 (i.e. 0000 to 0400 and 1600 to 2200) is often stood by the Second Mate. 04-08 is often stood by the Chief Mate. 08-12 is stood by the Third Mate.

The C/M stands the 04-08 so he’s up and ready for the day workers to start work at 0800 and the Third Mate is given the 08-12 because the Captain is usually awake from 0600 to 2200 and is available to help the most junior watch officer.

But… from the time the Captain goes to bed till the Second Mate arrives for watch (at around 23:30) the Third Mate is the only deck officer that is awake. Not a problem if the Third has experiance but when green mates meet in restricted waters two ships passing in the night is anything but poetic.

“The co-operation between Wärtsilä and Raytheon is in line with our strategy of staying at the forefront of systems integration within the marine sector,” commented Mr Jaakko Eskola, Group Vice President, Wärtsilä Ship Power. “This close association with Raytheon Anschütz is something that delivers benefits to the global operations of both parties. It gives us the ability to combine our engine and propulsion controls, our alarm and monitoring systems, and the Raytheon Anschütz navigation systems into a seamless integrated package.”

Wärtsilä intends to make these integrated packages, combining navigation and automation systems, available for all types of vessels. Wärtsilä Services will also, as a result of this agreement, be offering global retrofit possibilities. Raytheon Anschütz will provide their entire range of Integrated Bridge Systems, including Multifunction Displays, Radars, Chart Systems, Conning Display, Gyro Compasses, Autopilots and Steering Controls, Speed Logs, Echosounders, and Communication Systems, which provide maximum flexibility for navigation data access at any location on the bridge, and delivers the information needed for safe and precise ship navigation.

Source

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