Should LRIT replace the aging AMVER system?

Posted on 9 June 2009 by Ryan Erickson | Comments

I was recently sucked into a good conversation over at the AMVER blog as happens on occasion and had a re-thought that came about a few weeks back when I first heard the term LRIT. To be honest I haven’t a clue what I was being told about it- I checked out on that conversation (you would have too, trust me). However, it has come full circle as I found some more information on this LRIT thing- which actually stands for something- Long Range Identification and Tracking.

Here is the point of this post; if LRIT work’s as I’m reading it, is there really a need to keep AMVER? Or rather, could this be used as a starting point in an AMVER overhaul? Let the explanation begin-

As of now AMVER works like this:

• Merchant ship owners or managers enter specific information about their vessels into the Amver database on what is known as a search and rescue questionnaire or SAR-Q.
• Prior to sailing, participating ships send a sail plan to the Amver computer center. Vessels then report their locations every 48 hours until arriving at their port of call.
• Search and rescue controllers are able to predict the position of each ship at any point during its voyage.
• The position of each participating ship is displayed in an Amver surface picture or SURPIC.
• In an emergency, any rescue coordination center can request this SURPIC to determine the relative position of Amver ships near the distress location and divert the best suited ship or ships to respond.

And then there is the LRIT way of doing things-

• These ships must automatically report their position to the their Flag Administration at least 4 times a day. Other contracting governments may request information about vessels in which they have a legitimate interest under the regulation- I see SAR as being one of ‘em.
• This seems to be done by the vessels existing GMDSS via INMARSAT.

Ok, so here’s what I see; on the AMVER side the reporting is done on a manual basis from point to point, and if they don’t it’s a dead-reckoned system. Then you have the LRIT system which allows for auto-reporting of your position every six hours. LRIT: 1, AMVER: 0

In doing the reading it’s clearly noted that the LRIT way of doing things will only put a max of around 800 vessels on the system (U.S. vessels), but I couldn’t find the international numbers. For AMVER the numbers are substantially higher; 18,000 worldwide vessels participate. LRIT: 0, AMVER: 1

Well this is a short competition with really no basis behind it, however, in reading the links above for both the AMVER and LRIT systems I’ve come to terms that at this point the current system of AMVER is good enough. Historically speaking though- and that would be my history- there are/have been times when AMVER data was void and was of no use since there were no vessels that could help as they were too far off of the thought course. But as of now, we don’t have access the LRIT system. Not for U.S. vessels, but especially not for those outside the U.S.; this make it useless for us.

So, for now, the AMVER way will have to remain the way. But if the LRIT system continues on as planning says it should, I can see us using it, and perhaps moving the AMVER shop to the LRIT shop.