Vienna 16th February 2009

IAIN was represented by Elisabeth Klaffenboeck (OVN), participants were:
the European Community, the United States, the Russian Federation, Japan,
the People?s Republic of China, Italy, India, the European Space Agency,
the Bureau international des poids et measures (BIPM), the International
Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN), the European Position
Determination System (EUPOS) and the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU).

We are very happy to present you our new website. Please also consider this announcement as an invitation to contribute to our common goals. We have build in a platform four YOUR contribution on our website. We invite you to send in opinions, ideas, concerns, or any other information that relates to the objectives of the IAIN.
You can share with us by sending an e-mail with your contribution to the IAIN webmaster.

Malaysia
It was announced on 5th February that Saab TransponderTech has been awarded a
contract to supply a coastal Automatic Identification System (AIS) network for the
east coast of the Malaysian peninsula and an integration of all AIS systems in the
country.

The 2008 Federal Radionavigation Plan published by the Department of
Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of
Transportation was issued on 26th January 2009.
The document can be found on the Web site: www.pnt.gov see column
one, click on ?Public Releases,? see centre column ?2009 Releases? and
the date ?Jan 26 Federal Radionavigation Plan.?

The ENRI International Workshop on ATM/CNS (EIWAC2009) will be
organized by the Electronic Navigation Research Institute with the
support of the Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB), Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan. The workshop will open
on 5th March 2009 at the Otemachi Sankei Plaza, Tokyo, and conclude
the following day.

The international symposium CERGAL (CERtification of GALileo System &
Services), jointly organised by the German Institute of Navigation (DGON)
and GZVB, takes place on 18th and 19th March 2009.

The Formal Board dates are 14th and 15th May and 5th and 6th November
with the same Thursday and Friday combination for the formal
meeting, and one preparatory day the Wednesday before. There has been much
good work conducted by the Board over the last two years, and Dr. AJ Oria is
finalizing the PNT Board Report from the 1st charter period
2007-2008.

On October 31, 2008 the XXVI General meeting of the International Academy
of Navigation and Motion Control (ANMC) was held in Moscow. At present
384 persons are the members of the Academy, and it has the branches in
Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Perm, Saratov and Tula) and in the Ukraine.
Among the Academy members beyond the branches there are 24 notable
scientists from the USA, Germany, France, Canada, South Korea, China,
Turkey, Serbia and India.

A further step towards the deployment of Europe?s Galileo global navigation satellite system was taken on 27th April with the successful launch of ESA?s second Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE-B) satellite, carrying what has been described as the most accurate atomic clock ever flown into space. The GIOVE-B satellite was lofted into a medium altitude orbit around the earth by a Soyuz/Fregat rocket departing from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by launch operator Starsem. Lift-off occurred at 04:16 local time on 27th April (00:16 Central European Summer Time).

On 8th July an Agreement was signed in Prague enabling the Czech Republic’s accession to the ESA Convention. Signatories were Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA, and Mirek Topolanek, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic already has a strong tradition of space exploration. For example, Vladimir Remek of Czechoslovakia went into space in 1978. Since the early 1990s, ESA has negotiated and concluded framework co-operation agreements with a number of central and eastern European countries. The Czech Republic signed such a Co-operation Agreement with ESA in 1996, requesting more specific collaboration.

The United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) issued an update in July.

The meeting was held in the newly refurbished IMO headquarters in July with a very heavy agenda.
The dominating issue concerned the mandatory carriage of Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) which had been under discussion for some years. After very considerable debate mandatory carriage was finally agreed for new ships after 2012 of size 500 gross tonnage for passenger ships and 3,000 gross tonnage for cargo ships. A timescale for existing ships down to 10,000 gross tonnage for cargo ships was agreed extending out to 2018. A further mandatory carriage requirement was agreed for a Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm System for passenger ships and cargo ships of 150 gross tonnage starting from 2011.

VT Communications (VTC), part of VT Group plc announced on 28th
October at the RIN-ILA Conference that it had been awarded a GBP 4 million
contract by the General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) to upgrade and
enhance 14 Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) reference
stations in the UK and Ireland. The DGPS system operated by GLAs
delivers correction messages to maritime users, providing dramatically
improved accuracy and integrity of navigation around the UK coast.

On 22nd December 2008 the US Coast Guard’s Acquisition Directorate announced the award of a contract to Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corporation to deliver the core Nationwide Automatic Identification System data exchange capability.