Individual Systems News

The 2022 Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS) is scheduled to be held Nov. 15-17, 2022, hosted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Argonne campus in Lemont, Illinois. MRS is an annual international event focused on risks involving the global maritime transportation system (MTS). For the MRS, the U.S. Coast Guard partners with the sponsor, the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and the hosting agency. MRS began in 2011 and has grown in size, scope and interest. The MRS event will be followed by the U.S.

Cyber-attacks on the maritime industry’s operational technology (OT) systems have increased by 900% over the last three years with the number of reported incidents set to reach record volumes by year end.Addressing port and terminal operators during an online forum last week, Robert Rizika, Naval Dome’s Boston-based Head of North American Operations, explained that in 2017 there were 50 significant OT hacks reported, increasing to 120 in 2018 and more than 310 last year. He said this year is looking like it will end with more than 500 major cyber security breaches…

Classification Society ClassNK has released its Guidelines for Wind-Assisted Propulsion Systems for Ships.Environmental regulations continue to tighten, and as the IMO has announced its goal to completely eliminate GHG emissions within this century, technology using wind power for auxiliary propulsion is attracting attention as one of the underlying technologies for accomplishing this. In addition to the sails used on sailboats in older times, systems in which boats are dragged along by a large kite and the wind it receives…

The Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA), Høglund, the marine solutions and system integration company, ferry operator Fjord1, and the classification society DNV GL have completed the first testing phase of the ROMAS (Remote Operation of Machinery and Automation Systems) project.As ship systems become more complex, operators increasingly rely on the suppliers of individual systems to operate and maintain them. At the same time, finding machinery engineers who have the skills to deal with these sophisticated systems and are willing to work on board for weeks or even months is challenging.One way of dealing with this is through remote operations.

Oslo-based Bulkship Management AS has chosen Alfa Laval PureBallast 3 for compliance in ballast water treatment. The company has signed a comprehensive fleet agreement that includes 30 PureBallast 3 Compact Flex systems, as well as commissioning and training.Bulkship Management AS is a fast-growing ship management company focused on technical management and crewing. The company has now signed a fleet agreement with Alfa Laval in ballast water treatment, comprising the supply of 30 PureBallast 3 Compact Flex systems over the next four years.

It is time to move toward a quantitative approach that provides deeper understanding of individual risk elements observed in marine operating systems.Increasing connectivity in complex maritime operating systems is escalating the potential impact of cyber-related incidents and complicating the task of defending against them. Traditional methods for assessing cyber risk provide inadequate guidance for applying limited security resources.Currently, available risk assessment methods are largely qualitative.

Wärtsilä has been awarded the contract to supply a broad range of integrated automation, navigation and dynamic positioning equipment, as well as the complete uninterruptable power systems (UPS) for four new cruise ships. Two of the vessels are being built at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, while the other two vessels are to be built at Meyer Turku in Finland. The contract with Wärtsilä was signed in the second quarter of 2016. The Wärtsilä Nacos Platinum system comprises 12 multifunction workstations for combined displays of ARPA radar, ECDIS conning and dynamic positioning operations, in addition to those for automatic steering and voyage planning.

German manufacturers G&D feel very much at home in especially safety-related control rooms. For decades, its products have been serving in these environments. But the use of KVM does not only significantly improve the operating sequences. Sophisticated redundancy concepts make the entire installation absolutely fail-proof. KVM technology plays an integral part with regard to safe and easy-to-operate system structures. The abbreviation KVM means keyboard, video and mouse and stands as a synonym for computer interfaces.

Scottish Communications Group (SCG), an independent communication equipment specialist, has been awarded a $2.7 million contract by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) for the design and installation of a new CCTV solution at their Clyde and west coast network of 25 harbors, ports and slipways. These range from Largs on the mainland to Tarbert (Harris) in the Western Isles. The new CCTV system has been designed to improve safety and security for customers, Harbor Operator personnel…

Siem Offshore has chosen DNV GL’s Synergi Project to manage nine newbuilding projects. The software is used to optimize the collaboration between Siem Offshore and the yards and to keep control of building processes. Siem Offshore’s large newbuilding programme, with nine offshore vessels currently under construction, has led the company to acquire Synergi Project software. Synergi Project, a tailor-made solution for ship owners and shipyards, allows all involved parties to share completely up-to-date information for collaboration in ship design, ship building and aftermarket. “We are very positive to our experience with the implementation of Synergi Project,” says Jonny Oluf Hansen, Project Manager Newbuilding at Siem Offshore.

Dynamic positioning is a vessel capability provided by integration of a variety of individual systems and functions to automatically maintain a vessel’s position and heading by use of the vessel’s propellers and thrusters, and has been in use, particularly in the offshore oil and gas exploration business since the 1960s. To date, use of dynamic positioning has relied on industry best practices, classification society rules, and guidance from the International Maritime Organization (IMO). If the US Coast Guard has its way, that may change soon.

L-3 SAM Electronics has announced  that, via its L-3 Marine Systems Korea subsidiary, it has been awarded a contract to provide its NACOS Platinum navigation, automation and control system, as well as communications equipment, aboard three new container vessels for the global shipping company, Hamburg Süd. The 10,600-TEU ships, built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in South Korea, are scheduled for delivery in 2015. The NACOS Platinum navigation systems each…

As the first two Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) seaframes are taking shape, the first mission packages are being assembled and tested at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Panama City, Fla. LCS will be a reconfigurable, focused-mission ship that employs modular mission packages to counter anti-access threats in the littoral from mines, submarines and small, fast attack boats. “It has a very focused mission in a particular operating environment against very specific threats,” said Capt. Walt Wright, program manager for LCS Mission Modules in the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Littoral and Mine Warfare. “We’re bringing a large number of individual systems primarily focused on unmanned platforms -- unmanned underwater vehicles…