Vessel Tracking - LRIT
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Sheet: LRIT [
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The International Maritime Organization (IMO) recently adopted an amendment to Chapter V of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea 1974 (SOLAS) that introduces new mandatory position reporting obligations for SOLAS ships. Called Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT), the system will require vessels to automatically, transmit their identity, position and date/time at 6-hour intervals. SOLAS Contracting Governments will bear all costs of the system. The SOLAS amendment will come into force on 1 January 2008 with compliance by 31 December 2008. The LRIT fact sheet provides more details on LRIT, including the introduction of LRIT in Australia.
Update following MSC85 - December 2008
While the 31 December 2008 implementation date remains as written in the Regulation V/19-1, MSC85 noted that the design, construction, testing and integration of components of the system was still in progress and will continue after 31 December 2008. As a result, the Committee adopted transitional arrangements to cover the time period from 31 December 2008 to 30 June 2009 - MSC.1/Circ.1299.
As a result of the transitional arrangements, AMAS surveyors will refrain from carrying out inspections on LRIT equipment during this period.
For Australian Flagged vessels, please note that any ship with SOLAS certification will be required to comply with SOLAS V/19-1 unless the vessel is on domestic operations and an exemption has been issued. In addition, please be aware that there are slight changes to the testing process, and that the testing process should result in the provision of a Conformance Test Report, using the template format found in MSC.1/Circ. 1296.
For more information on LRIT please contact the Manager, Vessel Tracking at vesseltracking@amsa.gov.au
The following LRIT documents were agreed at MSC85 and can be found in the LRIT section of the IMO website:
IMO MSC.1/Circ. 1295 - on exemptions for LRIT
IMO MSC.1/Circ. 1296 - on testing and certification of compliance for LRIT equipment
IMO MSC.1/Circ. 1297 - on LRIT for SAR services
IMO MSC.1/Circ. 1298 - on implementation of LRIT
IMO MSC.1/Circ. 1299 - on transitional arrangements for LRIT
last updated: December 2008