Maritime Simulation News

(bymnews.com)

The Norwegian Navy has signed a new Long Term System Support Program (LTSSP) agreement with Kongsberg Maritime, which represents the most sophisticated simulation support package that the leading maritime simulation developer has ever provided to a naval customer.

The agreement consolidates the Norwegian Navy’s numerous simulation systems in order to reduce contractual overhead, providing a more streamlined and cost-efficient cooperation. It covers full upgrades of software, hardware and spare parts continuously throughout the contract period, ensuring that the Navy will always benefit from having the latest and most advanced simulation technology, as and when it is released by Kongsberg Maritime.

Kongsberg Maritime’s LTSSP offers four different levels of support, each of which can be customised to the customer’s exact requirements. Operational benefits include fixed and predictable costs, software and hardware updates and direct connection to system experts and the Kongsberg Maritime Helpdesk. All LTSSPs are precisely matched to the needs of the customer and Kongsberg Maritime’s simulator development, enabling equipment performance to improve over time and ensuring continuity of simulator availability.

The Norwegian Navy LTSSP contract is a result of a long standing business relationship, which has included extensive simulator deliveries and cooperation between Kongsberg Maritime Simulation & Training’s sales and customer support division and the Royal Norwegian Navy.

(thedigitalship.com)

The years of debate about the mandatory carriage of ECDIS (electronic chart display information systems) seem to be close to a conclusion, with reports from IMO’s NAV54 subcommittee meetings suggesting that members have reached a consensus in favour of making the technology a required fit for ocean going vessels.

While confirmation of this decision has not been given by IMO at this time, it appears that the decision has been reached, and the further necessary steps to add this requirement to IMO’s Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS) convention are now being mapped out.

2012 has been mentioned as a possible implementation date, but this is still subject to confirmation and would most like vary to a significant degree for different classes of vessels.

Any decisions taken at NAV54 would also have to be further ratified by IMO’s MSC (Maritime Safety Committee) at its 85th session later this year, but it seems likely that approval would be granted and that mandatory ECDIS would become a reality on future vessel bridges.

Such a step has been a while coming for some members of the NAV subcommittee. Last year’s NAV53 also considered the topic of mandatory ECDIS, and featured an in-depth study by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) outlining some of the safety benefits that could result from using the technology.

The recommendation from that study, that a carriage requirement be introduced, was supported by Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and supplemented by a further proposal by Japan calling for the mandatory carriage of ECDIS on certain vessel classes.

These proposals were rejected however, and the consideration of mandatory ECDIS postponed until this year’s NAV54. It would seem that the arguments of these delegates have now proven convincing enough for the subcommittee to accept such a move this time around, and that ECDIS will become a standard feature in future vessels.