Kuwait Coast Guard Orders Atlas VTS

Bremen-based STN Atlas Elektronik has been awarded a major contract to supply the Kuwaiti National Coast Guard with a new purpose-designed radar-based coastal surveillance system due to begin service in 2005. The system will comprise a series of nine Atlas 9760 VTS high-resolution radar stations providing loss-free digitized raw video for operator detection of all sizes of targets, particularly very small ones. Additionally, some stations will also include radio direction finders and meteorological sensors as well as specially-designed AIS facilities to meet specific Coast Guard requirements. All the stations will be connected via high-availability microwave links to two VTS sub-centers. The main surveillance center is to be located at the new Coast Guard base at Fintas, and will be the largest and most advanced of its type in the Gulf area; an additional three radar sites and a further sub-center are also planned at a later stage. Both the main control center and the sub-centers as well as selective radar sites will be additionally equipped with new-generation Atlas 9760 PC-based workstations featuring extended video presentation capabilities, while operators will be supported by an Atlas 9800 management and information system (MIS). Facilities at the control base, which are to include network and infrastructure management workstations, will be supplemented by installation of a custom-designed VTS simulator consisting of an instructor station and three trainee workstations. The contract is the second to have been recently obtained by STN ATLAS Elektronik in Kuwait following installation of a new VTS system at the National Petroleum Company’s Mina Al Ahmadi oil refinery as part of an integrated ship approach assembly being developed in cooperation with Marimatech of Denmark.