SOLAS Compliant Navigation Systems On Naval Vessels D C Bradley, A Scicluna BAE Systems Australia Defence Pty Ltd, Williamstown, VIC 3016, Australia david.bradley4@baesystems.com, andrew.scicluna@baesystems.com 1) ABSTRACT In addition to modern military naval vessels meeting all of their operational requirements, the vessels are also being specified to meet commercial shipping registry classifications; such as Lloyd s Registry. Registration with a shipping registry requires vessels to be compliant with commercial shipping standards. For navigation systems, commercial classification means compliance with Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS) Chapter V regulations. This paper provides a background to the legal requirements of SOLAS Chapter V, navigation equipment type approval, and Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) Marine Orders. The historical non-compliance of naval vessels, use of flag state waivers and the current drivers behind the need for new warships to be registered and meet SOLAS are discussed. This paper also examines the challenges of naval ship navigation system certification including military Ships Inertial Navigation Systems (SINS) and Global Position System (GPS) approval. A typical navigation system example is provided representing the minimum equipment requirements and the required interfaces between equipment. Additional aspects of a naval navigation design are briefly discussed covering redundancy, Emissions Security (EMSEC) and protecting classified data. The example also includes the typical additional requirements on a military naval navigation system to provide data to other ships systems, e.g. Combat System. The paper also examines the commercial shipping trends of integrating navigation functions in Integrated Navigation Systems (INS) and with other ship s functionality in Integrated Bridge Systems (IBS). The benefits of these systems are discussed and the possible application to military naval vessels. 2) INTRODUCTION The history of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) can be traced back to the sinking of the Titanic. The first version of the convention was adopted in 1914 and prescribed the required emergency equipment and safety procedures. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) was formed to bring international shipping conventions into an international framework. The first task of IMO was to update the SOLAS convention resulting in the 1960 convention. In 1974 the SOLAS convention was completely updated including a simplified process for future amendments. Naval vessels are using commercial navigation equipment more regularly as the drive to reduce costs and provide an equivalent level of safety as commercial shipping. This brings challenges in interfacing commercial equipment to military combat and control systems. There is also a challenge of proving to regulators that military equipment provides at least the same level of safety as the commercial equivalents.
3) MARITIME COMPLIANCE REGIME Australian Maritime Safety Authority Marine Orders 21 The Navigation Act 1912 1 provides the Chief Executive Office of Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) with the authority to make Marine Orders. The Navigation Act 1912 defines which vessels are covered by the act and the Marine Orders define the detailed technical requirements that the vessels must comply with. Marine Orders also provide the implementation of SOLAS. Marine Orders Part 21 2 provides the requirements for Safety of Navigation and Emergency Procedures and is presently at Issue 7. For the navigation systems, Marine Orders Part 21 2 refers to SOLAS Chapter V 3 regulations which are discussed in the next section. Marine Orders Part 21 2 requires that type approvals for equipment that SOLAS mandates to be fitted to the vessel. These functional requirements for type approvals are contained in IMO resolutions and circulars referenced from Marine Orders Part 21 2 Appendix 3. The specific requirements of the IMO resolutions and circulars are discussed in the type approval section below. SOLAS Chapter V SOLAS Chapter V 3 identifies the requirements for the safety of navigation. The chapter is divided in to several regulations that cover all aspects of navigation. The chapters particularly relevant to the vessel s navigation system are: Regulation 17 Regulation 18 Regulation 19 Regulation 20 Electromagnetic compatibility; Approvals, surveys and performance standards of navigation systems and equipment and voyage data recorder (VDR); Carriage requirements for shipborne navigational systems and equipment; and Voyage Data Recorders (VDR). Regulation 17 outlines the requirement for marine equipment to be designed and tested for electromagnetic compatibility taking in to account IMO Resolution A.813(19) 4. Regulation 18 requires that mandatory navigation equipment (defined by Regulation 19 and 20) to be tested and type approved to specific IMO resolutions and circulars. Regulation 19 identifies the navigation equipment that is required to be carried by a vessel. The type and quantity of equipment depends on the Gross Tonnage of the vessel as shown in Figure 1. Regulation 20 covers the requirement for vessels engaged on international voyages to be fitted with a VDR (dependent on the size and type of vessel).
Figure 1, SOLAS Mandatory Electronic Navigation Equipment Summary Type Approval A type approval provides the Classification Organisation with a level of confidence that equipment complies with the required IMO resolutions and circulars. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has taken the majority of the equipment resolutions and circulars and derived test standards to allow third party independent test agencies to test navigation products in a consistent manner. In addition to the specific functional and performance requirements of each type of equipment there are also general IMO resolutions that apply to all equipment, for example with IMO Resolution A.813(19) 4 and A.694(17) 5. Compliance to these general requirements is shown by testing to IEC 60945 6. IEC 60945 covers Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC), environmental and safety requirements. Warship Non-Compliance Regulation 1 of SOLAS Chapter V 3 allows Governments to have exemptions for warships, naval auxiliaries and other non-commercial government ships from SOLAS Chapter V 3. However these vessels are encouraged to act in a manner consistent, so far as reasonable and practicable, with the requirements of SOLAS Chapter V 3.
As a result naval vessels generally follow the procedures of SOLAS Chapter V 3 and fit similar equipment, however it is likely that naval vessels do not have all the equipment required by SOLAS Chapter V and where the equipment is of military supply it is unlikely to be type approved. 4) WARSHIP COMPLIANCE Drivers For Future Compliance The development of Naval Rules by classification societies such as Lloyd s Registry has provided a route for governments to have naval vessels assessed and classified against a set of common requirements. This provides flag state authority with an independent review of a naval ship design against best of class requirements. The Lloyd s Registry Naval Rules 7 is divided into different notations; the main notations applicable to navigation are Safety of Navigation and Communications (SNC), Superior Standard of Navigation (NAV) and Single Bridge Watchkeeper (NAV1). The SNC notation is performance based with a set of goals against each section. In general conformance against the SNC notation can be achieved by compliance with SOLAS Chapter V 3 regulations 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30 and 34. NAV and NAV1 notations are both aimed at reduced-manning bridges (single operator for NAV1) and are requirements based standards. The NAV notation, which is a requirement for the Canberra Class, provides increased equipment requirements compared to SNC notation and specifies requirements for bridge physical layout and alarm systems. NAV1 notation has additional requirements including a Bridge Warning System (BWS), the integration and management of alarms across navigation, communications and power. Military Equipment Type Approval The majority of the navigation system needs of a naval ship can be met with IMO type approved equipment, however there are a couple of areas where specialized military products will be required. Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers have become the standard positioning system for many uses including ships. The civilian maritime market has a large number of type approved receivers for both the NAVSTAR and GLONASS global navigation systems that include Very High Frequency (VHF) radio receivers for the reception of differential corrections. The military market is more specialised with the majority of GPS receivers either in a card format, e.g. GPS Receiver Application Module (GRAM); or targeted more at the portable role, e.g. Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR). Whichever type of receiver is selected, it will be required to be marinised and include displays to provide GPS position, performance and warning indicators to the navigator. Due to the nature of military operations, GPS receivers are also connected to Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas (CRPAs) that have null-forming capabilities to reject deliberate jamming and other forms of interference. Again these products were not specifically designed for marine usage and require a degree of packaging to make them suitable for the marine environment.
These factors result in a bespoke GPS made up of equipment from different manufacturers and a certain amount of custom integration. Obtaining type approvals is an expensive and time consuming activity and is unlikely to be done; instead the ship designer/systems integrator will be required to prove equivalence to the IMO GPS resolutions, MSC.112(73) 8, and general requirements for shipborne equipment, A.694(17) 5, to both the classification society and the flag state authority. These resolutions include requirements for position performance, minimum displays and environmental performance. The other typical piece of military navigation equipment installed on naval ships is a Ships Inertial Navigation System (SINS). SINS are required to accurately stabilize the vessel s mission systems with respect to attitude and position. For the navigation system the SINS provides an accurate source of heading that exceeds the IMO resolution performance requirements for gyro compass systems, A.424(XI) 9. Again, it is unlikely that the SINS will be type approved and the ship designer or systems integrator will need to prove equivalence to the IMO resolution for gyro for performance and environmental requirements. BAE Systems is presently generating equivalence documentation for GPS and SINS for the Canberra Class. The equivalence includes assessments of the GPS and SINS used on the Canberra Class against the functional requirements of the IMO resolutions, comparison of military GPS receiver performance against IMO GPS and gyro performance requirements and comparison of the military environmental standards against IEC 60945 6. 5) EXAMPLE NAVIGATION SYSTEM Navigation System Aspects An example of a typical modern naval navigation system with Lloyd s Register Classifications SNC and NAV notations is shown in Figure 2 for a vessel of 50 000 Gross Tonnage. Ideally, all of the equipment would be type approved to the applicable IMO resolutions, however it s common that the naval vessels will require greater accuracy and additional functionality. Typically, a naval vessel would consist of the following type approved equipment: 3 GHz and 9 GHz navigation radars each with Automatic Radar Plotting Aids (ARPA) Automatic Identification System (AIS); VDR; Electromagnetic speed log for speed through water; Doppler log for speed over ground; Echo sounder(s); Autopilot, either heading or track control; and Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). The positioning systems are military supply and unlikely to be type approved and would consist of: Military GPS (capable of using commercial C/A code and military P(Y) code); and SINS.
In some cases a standalone type approved Differential GPS (DGPS) may be provided on the bridge. On a naval vessel, the navigation system would also include a meteorological subsystem to supply wind and barometric information for aircraft and combat system operations. Interfacing between the navigation components will be via National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) 0183 10 / IEC 61162 11. The internal interfacing includes: SINS providing heading and integrated GPS-SINS position to the navigation radars, ECDIS and AIS; Electro-magnetic log supplies speed through water to the navigation radar and ECDIS to allow drift calculations to be performed; AIS providing track information to the ARPA for display and correlation with radar tracks; Navigation radars providing ARPA and AIS tracks and radar video to the ECDIS; and All systems provide critical data and radar video to the VDR for recording External Communications Figure 2, Example Navigation System External systems require various sources of navigation input as shown below in Table 1.
Table 1, Navigation System Typical External Communications In addition to supplying the required data any data distribution system has to convert the data in to the required format. Different external systems will require data over different bearers including analogue (voltage, current or pulses), synchro (115 V 400 Hz) and various digital formats. Special Requirements For Naval Ships There are some specific naval vessel requirements that impact the design of the navigation system. First is the storage of classified information on commercial equipment. Generally, current known navigation information is not classified, however route planning, and track log information is considered classified. The VDR is an obvious example of equipment that records navigation information that may be classified (ship s position) and needs to be controlled. Less obvious is that ECDIS incorporates a recording mechanism and equipment such as GPS may also have a position log. The location of the equipment that stores the data needs to be considered and the appropriate security put in place. The second related issue is Emissions Security (EMSEC). Where classified data is displayed or transmitted along an interface the equipment and installation should meet the requirements of the Australian Government Information Security Manual 12. This requires classified equipment and interfaces to be physically and electrically isolated from unclassified equipment. This impacts the installation design on the ship and needs to be considered early in the design. Finally, Emission Control (EMCON) needs to be considered for navigation transmitters, specifically radars and AIS. The functionality of included power and standby controls needs to be understood to ensure that inadvertent transmissions are not possible. Where the functionality is not clear additional power switches or antenna switching in to dummy loads may be required. However, this needs to consider the impact to equipment type approvals.
6) FUTURE TRENDS RAN Regulatory Framework Following the recent Rizzo Report 13 and the obligations under the new Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act 14 the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has approved the use of the North Atlantic Treaty Organistaion (NATO) Naval Ship Code (NSC) 15, described below. The initial vessel to implement the NSC will be HMAS Choules and the Naval Flag Administrator will be responsible for the development of implementation strategies for all new and existing vessels. The NSC 15 or Allied Naval Engineering Publication (ANEP) ANEP77 was developed by ten navies and six classification societies from around the world, including Australia. The maintenance of the code is the responsibility if the International Naval Safety Association (INSA). The NSC 15 states the aim of the code is to provide a cost effective goal based standard for naval ship safety and environmental assurance, benchmarked against statute and accepted by the global naval community and inter-government bodies. The code is divided into a number of chapters each covering different aspects of ship design. Each chapter has a set of goals that have been developed by INSA which provides an equivalent standard of safety to a commercial ship. Each chapter also has functional and performance requirements and a description of common approaches to verification of the requirements. NSC 15 Chapter IX covers navigation and seamanship. Chapter IX regulation 0 lists the goals of the navigation systems including independent navigation, awareness of fixed and moving hazards, receiving weather forecasts, measuring and interpreting environmental data and assisting other vessels and persons in distress. Regulation 0 also covers goals on reliability and failure, requiring that essential safety functions are maintained following a single system or equipment failure. Finally, possibly one of the most important goals, is that the navigation systems essential safety functions are not to be dependent on the ships combat system being available. NSC 15, Chapter IX Navigation and Seamanship, Regulation 1 covers the functional and performance requirements of the navigation system. This chapter requires the ship to be designed, constructed and maintained in accordance with the requirements of SOLAS. Future revisions of the NSC should have the navigation requirements updated following working group activities in this area. Technology Drivers In the last ten years there have been several changes to navigation systems. These have included Integrated Bridge Systems (IBS), Integrated Navigation Systems (INS) and improvements to equipment interfacing. Initially there was no definition of what an IBS and an INS were and manufacturers could integrate functions without any specific requirements for the integrated system. Equipment interfaces are starting to move away from point to point NMEA 0183 10 serial communications to network based topologies. The IMO resolution MSC.64(67) 16 Annex 1 defines an IBS as a system that supports at least two of the following operations: passage execution; communications; machinery control; loading, discharge and cargo control; or safety and security. The IBS should comply with the individual equipment resolutions and be as effective as individual equipment. This requires redundant system design with fall back operation for essential
functions. This aligns well with the standard naval requirement for redundant systems and networks. The IMO resolution also requires IBS systems to have a transitional form of power from main to emergency source. Again, naval vessels typically have significant Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) requirements and an IBS fits well with naval requirements. IMO MSC.252(83) 17 defines the purpose of an INS to enhance the safety of navigation by providing integrated and augmented functions to avoid geographic, traffic and environmental hazards and requires an INS to combine, process and evaluate data from connected sensors and sources. This is very well aligned with how the combat system integrates data from multiple sensors. The move to networked interfaces is being driven by the increased complexity in system integration and greater need for connectivity, two of which are described below. NMEA have developed NMEA 2000 18 based on Controller Area Network (CAN) system. CAN was initially designed for use in the automotive industry and has high levels of robustness. Several navigation manufacturers are distributing NMEA 0183 messages over Internet Protocol (IP) based networks. Although both systems use different network technologies, both allow data to be distributed from multiple sensors to multiple receivers using a network topology and both have significantly higher bandwidth than RS-422 serial communications. IP based networks onboard naval vessels can be used for more than just NMEA 0183 10 distribution, it offers accurate transmission of video, timing and management systems; for this reason it s likely that IP based networks will become the standard for navigation system communications on naval vessels. 7) REFERENCES 1 Australian Government, 1913, Navigation Act 1912. 2 Australian Maritime Safety Authority, 2010, Marine Orders Part 21 Safety of Navigation and emergency procedures, Issue 7. 3 International Maritime Organization, 1974, International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), as amended. 4 International Maritime Organization, 1995, Resolution A.813(19) General Requirements for Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) for All Electrical and Electronic Ship s Equipment. 5 International Maritime Organization, 1991, A.694(17) General requirements for shipborne radio equipment forming part of the global maritime distress and safety system (GMDSS) and for electronic navigational aids. 6 International Electrotechnical Commission, 2002, IEC 60945 Maritime navigation and radio communication equipment and systems - General requirements - Methods of testing and required test results", Fourth Edition. 7 Lloyd s Register, 2011, Rules & Regulations for the Classification of Naval Ships 2011. 8 International Maritime Organization, 2000, MSC.112(73) Revised Performance Standards for Shipborne Global Positioning System (GPS) Receiver Equipment. 9 International Maritime Organization, 1979, A.424(XI) Performance Standards for Gyro-Compasses. 10 National Marine Electronics Association, 2008, NMEA 0183, Version 4.0. 11 International Electrotechnical Commission, 2010, IEC 61162 Maritime navigation and radiocommunication equipment and systems - Digital interfaces, Edition 4.0. 12 Department of Defence, 2011, Australian Government Information Security Manual.
13 Rizzo P J, July 2011, Plan to Reform Support Ship Repair and Management Practices. 14 Australian Government, 2011, Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act 2010. 15 International Naval Safety Association, Naval Ship Code (ANEP-77), Edition 2. 16 International Maritime Organization, 1996, MSC.64(67) Recommendations on new and amended performance standards. 17 International Maritime Organization, 2007, MSC.252(83), Adoption of the Revised Performance Standards for integrated Navigation Systems (INS) 18 National Marine Electronics Association, NMEA 2000 Standard for Serial-Data Networking of Marine Electronic Devices, Edition 2.2. 9) BIOGRAPHIES David Charles Bradley David is a Combat Systems Engineering Manager at BAE Systems. David graduated from Salford University, UK in 1990 with an Honours Degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering. David spent 11 years at Royal Aerospace Establishment (and subsequent DRA and DERA) conducted research and flight trials on helicopter navigation and flight control systems. For the majority of this time David specialised in Naval Aviation and the Helicopter Ship Dynamic Interface. David spent 14 months at DSTO Fishermans Bend as part of the Anglo-Australian Memorandum Of Understanding on Research conducting simulation trials on helicopter ship operations before deciding to remain in Australia. David joined Vision Systems (now Xtralis) in 2001 and worked as the lead systems engineer and product manager for the development of smoke detection and voice evacuation products. David joined BAE Systems in 2009, initially working on ANZAC class update projects before joining the Australian LHD project as the lead of the navigation team. Andrew Scicluna Andrew is a Combat Systems Engineer at BAE Systems. Andrew graduated from RMIT University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Electronic Engineering. Andrew joined BAE Systems in January 2008 as a graduate engineer on ANZAC class upgrade project to conduct test and integration of the navigation data distribution system in preparation for the Anti Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) project. Andrew joined the Australian LHD project navigation systems engineering team in 2010.