New Equipment

.: AIS = Automatic Identification System

General

AIS (Automatic Identification System) is a shipboard broadcast transponder which is able to transmit their ID, location, route, speed and other information to all other nearby ships and shore side authorities on a common VHF Radio Channel. It is designed to operate in one of these following modes:

1. In a ship-to-ship mode in order to avoid collision.
2. As a means for coastal states to get information regarding a vessel and its cargo.
3. As a traffic management device when integrated with a Vessel Traffic System (VTS).

Potential advantages of AIS

A. For the Officer of the watch

1. Enhance situational awareness.
2. Unambiguous identification of radar targets.
3. Conquer problem of target substitution when two contacts pass close together on the radar screen.
4. Ability to observe around bends or behind a landmass, to detect and identify other ships.
5. Predict the place and time of CPA with other ships.
6. Detect a change in another ships heading almost in real time without waiting for ARPA calculations.
7. Detect vessels that might otherwise be hidden in another vessels radar shadow.
8. Real time information about other ships movements.
9. Automatically swap information on destination, ETA, loading condition and other data with nearby ships.

B. For the VTS Center Watch stander

1. Automatic identification of radar targets.
2. Overcome target swapping of radar contacts.
3. Constant coverage even when radar picture is degraded by weather and interference.
4. Tracking of vessels behind islands and obstacles.
5. Ability to send port data, weather forecast and safety messages automatically to all ships in the area.
6. Reduce need for manual input of static data, such as vessel name, size, draft and cargo.
7. Automatic logging of all data.