The Council of the IMO, meeting for its 102nd session in London from 29th June to 3rd July, agreed that next year’s theme for World Maritime Day will be 2010: Year of the Seafarer, endorsing a proposal from IMO Secretary-General Admiral Efthimios E. Mitropoulos.
The theme, to be celebrated throughout the year and also at a World Maritime Day parallel event in Argentina, was selected to give IMO and the international maritime community the opportunity to pay tribute to the world’s seafarers for their unique contribution to society and in recognition of the risks they shoulder in the execution of their duties in an often hostile environment.

A workshop of GNC Challenges for Miniature Autonomous Systems will be sponsored by The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) Munitions Directorate and facilitated by the Institute of Navigation from 26th to 28th October 2009 at the Emerald Coast Conference Center in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
This workshop is intended to bring the Depertment of Defense (DoD) technical and user community, academia, and industry together to review and discuss advances in guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) for Miniature Autonomous Systems.
Abstracts are due by 31st July 2009.

The most important issue of the 4th Extraordinary International Hydrographic Conference was the global availability and quality of ENCs (Electronic Navigational Charts), which are the only official electronic charts published by maritime countries according to the SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) convention of the IMO. A fairly complete portfolio of ENCs is expected by IMO in the very next years, as being necessary to suit the mandatory carriage of ECDIS on most commercial vessels, which has passed MSCs approval recently.

At the initiation of the Civil Aviation Authority key organisations involved in the operation and regulation of offshore helicopter operations met on 18th June with representatives from the UK’s search and rescue services to discuss the operational needs of search and rescue organisations, and the role of Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) and Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT).

It was announced by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal on 5th June that passenger traffic expressed in terms of passenger kilometres performed (PKP) increased marginally by 1.3% in 2008 compared to 2007, according to preliminary data provided to the organization by its Member States. This is said to represent the slowest rate of growth for the air transport industry since 2002.

It was reported on 9th June that with regard to the ongoing accident investigation into the loss of Air France flight AF 447, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), in its capacity as certification authority for aircraft type designed in the EASA Member States (EU + Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), confirmed that it had at all times been fully informed by the responsible accident investigation body, BEA France.

Transas Marine Pacific together with its local agent KASI (Malaysia) Sdn
Bhd have successfully completed installation and commissioning of a
Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) for the port of Sapangar Bay,
Sabah, East Malaysia.

In recent weeks the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) issued an Anti-Piracy Planning Chart as part of an initiative driven by the EU Naval Force.

Revised guidance on combating piracy and armed robbery against ships was agreed by IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) when it met for its 86th session. Specific guidance relating to the continued attacks on ships off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden was also agreed. The busy agenda also covered the adoption of amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), including a new regulation to make the carriage of electronic charts mandatory, and the approval of goal-based standards for new oil tankers and bulk carriers, for future adoption.

News has been received that as from 1st June the European Union Long Range Identification and Tracking of ships Data Centre (EU LRIT DC) entered in production following successful developmental testing. This is a milestone following a preparatory phase of a year-and-a-half of development work by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and its main contractor, Collecte Localisation Satellite (CLS).

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has appointed Mr. Raymond Benjamin to the post of Secretary General. Mr. Benjamin, a national of France, succeeds Dr. Taïeb Chérif whose term expires on 31st July 2009.

The appointment is for a period of three years and Mr. Benjamin will assume his functions on 1st August 2009.

The Council made the decision at the fourth meeting of its 186th Session, 27th February 2009.

Although its peak is still four years away, a new active period of Earth-threatening solar storms will be the weakest since 1928, predicts an international panel of experts led by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center and funded by NASA.

Despite the prediction, Earth is still vulnerable to a severe solar storm. Solar storms are eruptions of energy and matter that escape from the sun and may head toward Earth, where even a weak storm can damage satellites and power grids, disrupting communications, the electric power supply and GPS. A single strong blast of “solar wind” can threaten national security, transport, financial services and other essential functions.

Com Dev International Ltd. of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, announced at the end of April that its first experimental satellite, NTS, had successfully completed one year in orbit, validating the company’s high-performance detection capability for its advanced space-based AIS technology.

This technology enables the highly accurate tracking and monitoring of maritime traffic from pole to pole and across the globe, even in areas of high shipping density. Launched on 28th April, 2008, NTS has now mapped global shipping traffic to an extensive degree and has provided the technical foundation for an operational system which is currently under construction.

Initial operations of this system will commence in 2010, it is understood.

Here you’ll find the annual reports of IAIN Representatives, as presented to the IAIN Officers’ Meeting held on May 3, 2009. These annual reports are part of the Officers’ Meeting minutes.

Included are:

• Annual Report on the ICG (International GNSS Committee) Activities
• Annual Report on the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Activities
• Annual Report on the IHO (International Hydrographic Organisation) Activities
• Annual Report on the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) Activities
• Annual Report on the US PNT (Position, Navigation and Timing) Activities

Here you’ll find the minutes of the IAIN Officers’ Meeting, held on May 3, 2009, including the financial statement on 2008 and the budget for 2009, Annexes A and B respectively.

Annex C, containing the annual reports of IAIN Representatives, can be found in the ‘Reports from Representatives’ section.

Galileo Services Association, with 28 members among the major actors of
the GNSS downstream industry, is the leading international association of
GNSS equipment manufacturers and service providers. Since the
establishment of the association, Galileo Services’ members have
significantly invested in the Galileo downstream business, in particular
through EC Framework Programmes for Research and Development, and
have strongly supported the Galileo programme being a key player during
discussions with the Institutions.

OREGIN, the ORganisation of European GNSS equipment and service
INdustry, is the European biggest network of GNSS industries. Created in
1999, OREGIN comprises today over 160 members from 20 European
countries, ranging from large companies to the smallest innovative start ups
and SMEs, in association with university research centres.

Galileo Services and OREGIN have decided to join their forces.

Captain Robert Holleran, Jeppesen’s Chief Technical Pilot, has successfully completed the flight validation training course in accordance with FAA notice 8260.66 [Flight Validation of Satellite-Based Performance Based Navigation (PBN) and Special Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Instrument Flight Procedures (IFP)]. This makes Captain Holleran one of only four individuals who have received this authorization, and makes Jeppesen the first and only third-party vendor authorized to flight check PBN procedures.

It was announced from ICAO HQ in Montreal on 1st April that major
stakeholders of the world aviation community had signed a Declaration
calling for the rapid implementation of Performance-based Navigation
(PBN), a new air navigation concept that will contribute to further
improving the safety, efficiency and sustainability of the global air transport
system.

An Important Mark of Quality
.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced on 1st April that all
224 of its member airlines, comprising 93% of all scheduled international air
traffic, are listed on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry.

Port of Gdynia AIS
The Gdynia Maritime Office has installed ten new buoy-mounted AIS aid
to navigation units from Tideland Maritime Systems as part of a major
refurbishment of facilities within the port.

Radionavigation is a global business with a global footprint and the US
Global Positioning System (GPS) has been the jewel in the crown for nearly
a generation. The US has established such a level of trust in its operation of
GPS that governments, service providers, and users worldwide have
included it in their critical infrastructure, safety-critical, and mass-market
applications, and have decommissioned many other aids to navigation. In
making decisions on GPS and other systems, the international community
takes careful note of the US Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP): ?the
official source of U.S. radionavigation policy and planning?.

It was announced in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, on 16th March that HITT had
been selected by the Air Traffic Management Bureau of the People?s Republic of
China that it had been selected to supply a ground surveillance safety system to
Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, the second airport of Shanghai…

On 7th February the US Department of Homeland Security announced that it
is to begin implementing an independent national positioning, navigation
and timing system that complements GPS in the event of an outage or
disruption in service.

IMO has used its navigational warning system to advise of an experimental communications satellite launch by the Democratic People?s Republic of Korea (DPRK). In a letter sent to IMO on 11th March 2009, the Maritime Administration of the DPRK said that the launch would take place between 4th and 8th April between the hours of 0200 and 0700 (UTC). The letter also identified the co-ordinates of two potential dangerous areas (see below), in the Sea of Japan and the Northern Pacific Ocean, which ships should avoid during those times.

The European Commission and the European Space Agency look forward to firstrate
co-operation to bring the European satellite radio navigation project to a
successful conclusion, it has been reported.

On 10th February the Commission Vice-President responsible for transport,
Antonio Tajani, met Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the European
Space Agency, in order to give official endorsement to their continued cooperation in the Galileo programme. This meeting comes after the signing of a
delegation agreement covering Galileo?s deployment phase by the European
Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA) on 19th December 2008 .