Sperry Marine to Supply S-VDRs for Teekay Vessels

Northrop Grumman Corporation has been selected to supply simplified voyage data recorders (S-VDR) for 59 Teekay Shipping vessels. Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine business unit is supplying the S-VDR hardware, as well as technical support, installation kits, interface devices, commissioning and training, through its worldwide service network. The systems will be installed on the ships during drydock overhauls or, when possible, at pierside at a variety of ports around the world. Similar to an aircraft’s black box cockpit recorder, the S-VDR downloads data from the ship’s navigation instruments and voice recordings from the bridge and radio communications, which can be retrieved and analyzed following an accident at sea. The Sperry Marine S-VDR system has been type-approved by major classification societies and national authorities to comply with International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Electrotechnical Commission specifications. The IMO carriage requirements state that all existing ocean-going ships over 3,000 gross tonnage must be fitted with an approved S-VDR at the first scheduled drydocking after July 1, 2007, but no later than July 1, 2010.