Offshore Systems International Ltd. - a leader in electronic charts and positioning systems for the maritime industry -- announced that Offshore's Electronic Chart Precise Integrated Navigation System (ECPINS) has been validated by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense for "proper and complete" display of NIMA Digital Nautical Chart (DNC) in Vector Product Format (VPF). DNC is the official electronic chart used by the U.S. Navy. Earlier this year, NIMA completed digitization of the worldwide DNC coverage required by the United States Navy for military use.
The Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) requires the capability to operate with DNC charts, and initiated the development and test program with Offshore. DND was a co-producer of the Digital Nautical Chart database in cooperation with NIMA. For the ECPINS effort, NIMA cooperated with DND on technical issues and conducted the validation tests using a standardized test data set.
"This is a significant achievement and milestone for Offshore", said William R. Alder Jr., Deputy Director for Acquisition and Technology, NIMA. "Their success equates to a success for the maritime community by making it possible for mariners to take advantage of electronic charting, eliminating many constraining aspects of navigation by paper chart while significantly advancing safety of navigation."
"This is a major step toward expanding our business opportunities in the U.S. and other NATO navies. With the completion of the DNC testing, ECPINS now reads and displays all major official marine
navigational chart formats available worldwide," said John Jacobson, President and CEO of Offshore. "Since our announcement last year, that we were building towards a full NATO Warship ECDIS (WECDIS) capability, we have been adding new capabilities at a ferocious pace.