Technical Assistance Centers News

Naval shipyards and industry partners see business growing, but finding enough trained and qualified workers is a challenge.General Dynamics Electric Boat will invest $1.7 billion to modernize and upgrade its Quonset, R.I. and Groton, Conn., facilities over the next ten years,” said Sean Davies , vice president for EB’s Quonset Point Operations. “Here at Quonset, we are investing $700 million that will increase our outfitting space by 13 acres, to support work on the Virginia and Columbia class of submarines.

The first newbuild ship in a series of three offshore support vessels (OSVS) for shipowner Groen (Scheveningen), 7-Oceans, was delivered at Damen Maaskant Shipyards in Stellendam, the Netherlands at the end of July. Imtech Marine Netherlands provided all navigation and communication equipment, under the reintroduced Radio Holland brand. Imtech Marine Netherlands has already taken care of the maintenance of the navigation and communication equipment of the fleet of shipowner Groen for many years via a shore-based maintenance contract.

Remote monitoring enables early detection of problems and correction of system faults. Imtech Marine has been awarded a three-year contract by Northern Lighthouse Board to provide VSAT systems with connectivity and value added services. The contract also includes maintenance services for the five vessels operated by Northern Lighthouse Board and Trinity House in the U.K. The five vessels maintain safe shipping lanes around the Scottish and English sectors of the British Isles coastline.

Solution that increases efficiency of ship’s operations fits in Imtech Marine’s life cycle management strategy. A  global maritime company Imtech Marine (Rotterdam) and satellite communications specialist Navarino (Piraeus) have announced a partnership. Imtech Marine has become global supplier of Infinity, an advanced maritime bandwidth management and optimisation solution that can be used onboard ships equipped with IP-based satellite terminals (such as Fleet BroadBand or VSAT). Imtech Marine chose Infinity for its ability to support Imtech Marine’s Global VSAT network and various connectivity solutions. Imtech Marine offices that will be offering Infinity include Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, China, Singapore and USA.

Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) received national recognition for its assistance in the development of a ballast-water processing system designed to reduce the introduction of invasive foreign plankton transported by cargo ships. The project with Old Dominion University and Browning Transport Management was selected as "outstanding" in the technology assistance category of the National Association of Management and Technical Assistance Centers (NAMTAC) Project of the Year Awards competition. The award was presented last night at the NAMTAC 2002 Fall Awards Banquet in Asheville, NC, to Robert Harrell, CIT's vice president of regional operations. The award is CIT's 16th NAMTAC award in the past 10 years.