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BRIEFS

Fugro snaps up navigation system

A navigation system unveiled at the recent Ocean Business event in the UK has been snapped up by offshore survey firm Fugro. The Rovins 9 DVL by Exail integrates Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) technologies to deliver highly accurate and reliable subsea positioning and velocity measurements, and with its decades of experience in carrying out offshore survey services, the purchase by Fugro is a huge sign of confidence in the product.

Antifouling firm wins King’s award

A UK firm that uses ultrasound to prevent biofouling has won one of the first King’s Awards for Enterprise in the UK. Sonihull makes technology that emits ultrasonic soundwaves to prevent marine algae, weeds and so on from colonizing vessels and structures at sea. It also removes the need to coat hulls with toxic coatings. The King’s Awards for Enterprise are in their 57th year and continue the late Queen Elizabeth’s legacy.

56 new tugs for the Suez Canal

Eqypt’s Suez Canal is to launch six tugs and a floating port by the end of 2023, reports have said. Three tugs are in build at the Port Said shipyard, with another three to be built at Guangzhou in China. Each vessel is 32m x 12.8m with a bollard pull of 75 tonnes. The 260m x 62m floating port ‘Pride of the Canal’, which will have a capacity of 35,000 tonnes, is also in build and is due to be handed over in June.

BMT WINS MOD TUG TRAINING CONTRACT FOR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS

BMT has revealed exclusively to Maritime Journal that it has won a contract from the Ministry of Defence to train admiralty pilots and tug masters in manoeuvring the Navy’s Queen Elizabethclass aircraft carriers (QECC).

The company’s five, fully networked ship and tug bridge simulator suite is fully optimised for pilotage and tug teams to practise manoeuvring and berthing strategies for the two vessels, which are based at Portsmouth on the south coast.

The latest iteration of the simulation platform is supported by hydrographic dynamic S-100 data, which provides hydraulic and hydrodynamic synthetic environments to deliver the

highest levels of precision e-navigation, situational awareness and realism, BMT says.

“BMT’s innovative solution will enable the admiralty pilots at Portsmouth to accelerate training throughput and enhance delivery of sustainable distributed training, especially in highly complex tow-outs and ship manoeuvring situations,” the company says.

“This project offers an important training capability, which will be vital to developing and sustaining the skills of admiralty pilots and Serco tug masters in handling the nation’s flagships, the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers,” said Nick Randall, King’s Harbour

Master Portsmouth at UK Ministry of Defence.

Admiralty pilots will undergo ’high-octane training in port’ at BMT’s facility in Fareham, near Portsmouth, where the interactive simulation allows a submersive synthetic port environment underpinned by what BMT calls ’unsurpassed dynamic and granular tidal and water level data’ supported by hydrodynamic modelling.

“Our talented software team’s fusion and stitching together of the company’s highest standard hardware and ‘BMT Rembrandt’ software platform is the very latest of its ‘navy mastery modelling’ that helps to shape the process of learning for current and future admiralty pilots, including operators of other specialist/capital ship classes such as aircraft carriers and assault ships, enabling them to achieve competency and to navigate securely and reliably in port and in restricted/complex waterways,” said Dr Phil Thompson, Maritime Products director at BMT.

The flagship Queen Elizabethclass aircraft carries - HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales - are the biggest warships ever built for the Royal Navy, and the most advanced.

8 BMT’s tug simulator will be used to train British Navy pilots manoeuvring the QE aircraft carriers