It was reported from Manassas, Virginia, on 27 January that the (US) Institute of Navigation (ION) had announced recipients of the 2020 Fellowships.

The new Fellows are:

Dr José Ángel &Aacutevila Rodri?guez for his pioneering contributions to the design of the Galileo signal plan, and leadership in the modernization of Galileo.

Dr Yang Gao for significant contribution to the development, dissemination and commercialization of high-precision GNSS technologies; and for significant educational and training impact on navigation engineers and professionals.

Dr Todd E Humphreys for significant and fundamental contributions to PNT security and precise GNSS positioning for the mass market, and for dedication to GNSS education and outreach.

The Officers and Member Organisations of IAIN congratulate all the newly elected Fellows.

The Institute of Navigation announced winners of its 2019 Annual Awards at the ION International Technical Meeting and Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications meeting held in San Diego, California, 21 to 24 January.

The Per Enge Early Achievement Award was received by Dr Ramsey Faragher

The Distinguished PTTI Service Award was received by Pascal Rochat

The Dr Samuel M Burka Award was received by Dr Jordan D Larson, Dr Demoz Gebre-Egziabher and Dr Jason H Rife

The Captain P V H Weems Award was received by Dr Joseph J Rushanan

The Tycho Brahe Award was received by Dr André Hauschild

The Norman P Hays Award was received by James J Miller

The Thomas L Thurlow Award was received by Dr Zaher (Zak) M Kassas

The Distinguished Service Award was received by Dr Suneel I Sheikh.

The Officers era and Member Organisations of IAIN congratulate all the new ION Award winners.

On 22 January Navmoor Aids to Navigation of Brecon, Wales launched an innovative monitoring system. This has been developed and driven by the marine industry and its quest for sustainable knowledge, it is reported.
In a world where outages and costly repairs drastically impact annual budgets and environmental targets the devices indicate the condition of an asset at any time, and, particularly, when it is failing or out of action.
This is regarded as sustainable IOT-condition based monitoring with a portal designed for the marine industry by those involved with that industry.

An interesting introduction to the service is to be found here.

Our picture shows US Navy Seaman Luke Jacobs, a student with Basic Reconnaissance Course (BRC), Advanced Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry – West, preparing to step off at the start of a land navigation evaluation as part of the course’s individual skills phase at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. Students must remain 50 metres apart from each other and locate ten points on their own. The image was issued from Camp Pendleton, California on 15 January.

The UK’s first dedicated, purpose designed wargaming centre has been unveiled by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The Defence Wargaming Centre (DWC) on Dstl’s Portsdown West site near Portsmouth will host wargames for all three services, with the RAF having conducted the first exercise, Eagle Warrior 19, last month, December 2019.

Dstl has a long history of delivering successful wargames on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and other government departments, conducted both at Dstl and at other sites in the UK and overseas. Wargame participants experience the rigour and implications of decision making in a “safe to fail” environment, without the risk, expense and disruption of live exercises or real operations.

The Israel Navigation Workshop and Exhibition (INWE20) is a biennial event organized and sponsored by the Israel Association for Automatic Control (IAAC).The IAAC have advised prospective delegates to register for the INWE 20 conference before 20 January to receive the discounted early bird price.

A registration form in both English and Hebrew is available here.

A record number of 20 companies will be presenting their products in the exhibition.

Nominations for candidates for the IAIN Awards 2021 are now invited. The three awards are:

The Harrison Award – to recognise an individual or organization for ‘an outstanding contribution to navigation’.

The Necho Award – to recognise an individual, or organization, for ‘their contribution to the art and/or science of navigation in general over a number of years, or for a special achievement’.

Honorary Membership – in recognition of ‘an individual’s contribution to the activities of the Association’.

It is expected that most nominations will be submitted by a member
organisation, but nominations by individuals will be considered. The nomination form and rules can be found on the IAIN website. Nominations should be forwarded to the Secretary General in the first instance and must be received before 31 October 2020 in order to be admissible.

The IAIN Awards Committee for 2021 (AC21) has been appointed and will consist of:

Prof. Youfang Huang (CIN) (President)

Capt. Hesham Helal (AIN) (Vice President)

Prof. Hiroyuki Oda (JIN)

Capt. Peter Chapman-Andrews RN (RIN)

Eng. Mario Caporale (IIN)

Mr. Bart Banning (NIN)

Prof. Naser El-Sheimy (ION)

To: IAIN member Institutes and organisations around the world,

Season’s Greetings from the UK! On behalf of myself, and also Simon Gaskin our Secretary General and the IALA Secretariat, may we take this opportunity to wish you all the best for a successful and rewarding 2020.

For IAIN, 2020 plans include further strengthening participation in the activities of the international and intergovernmental organisations with which we have agreed to be involved, including improving the associated reporting to members; continuing the review of the Association’s strategy and priorities which was started in 2019; and calling for nominations for our unique global awards, which will be presented at the World Congress in Edinburgh in November 2021. You will have seen an announcement that the Awards Panel has been established and I would encourage as many quality nominations for the awards as possible.

The Royal Institute of Navigation held a very well-received International Navigation Conference at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in November 2019. The venue, city and evening venues were all excellent, giving us great confidence for the IAIN 2021 World Congress, which is being held at the same conference centre. The European Group of Institutes of Navigation, EUGIN, has also agreed that the 2021 European Navigation Conference should be run with the IAIN 2021 World Congress at the same time – the aim of all concerned is to have a truly global gathering with the widest possible participation. Please mark your calendars now: 15-18 November 2021.

RIN is also actively supporting the 2020 European Navigation Conference, run by the German Institute of Navigation. I hope to see many of you in Dresden in May 2020.

Best wishes,

John Pottle President IAIN

From Tokyo on 30 December it was announced that ClassNK has released the first issue of its new publication ClassNK Technical Journal, focusing on digitalization in this edition.

ClassNK Technical Journal is a comprehensive technical publication that supersedes ClassNK Technical Bulletin, a publication that was formerly being published by the Society, to better provide its technical knowledge to the maritime industry where innovative R&D and technical development are in demand.

From our Austrian member institute, the Österreichischer Verein für Navigation, we have received word of the latest issue of their regular publication, The Navigation Flashlight. It is published three times a year, currently in its nineteenth year of publication and it is in German.

In the US the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded six contracts for work on the Angler programme, which aims to pioneer the next generation of autonomous underwater robotic systems capable of physical intervention in the deep ocean environment. It is understood that this class of future unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) must overcome reliance on GPS and human intervention to support infrastructure establishment, maintenance, and resilience over the vastness of the ocean. Furthermore, the Angler programme seeks to merge breakthroughs in terrestrial and space robotics, as well as underwater sensing, to develop autonomous robotic solutions capable of navigating and surveying ocean depths, and physically manipulating human-made objects of interest.

ITM/PTTI 2020 will be held from 21 to 24 January, 2020 at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay, San Diego, California. Register by Friday, 3 January and save $200 on registration rates for The Institute of Navigation’s co-located (ION) International Technical Meeting (ITM) and the Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting (PTTI). Please, complete your registration by Friday 3 January.

The International Technical Program is the ION’s winter meeting with peer-reviewed technical papers related to positioning, navigation and timing and includes the ION Fellows and Annual Awards presentations.

PTTI is the technical conference designed to disseminate and coordinate PTTI information at the user level; review present and future PTTI requirements; inform government and industry engineers, technicians and managers of precise time and frequency technology and its problems; and provide an opportunity for an active exchange of new technology associated with PTTI.

IMO reported on 29 November that the organization’s Assembly had elected the following States to be Members of its Council for the 2020-2021 biennium: Category (a): ten States with the largest interest in providing international shipping services: China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States; Category (b): ten States with the largest interest in international seaborne trade: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Arab Emirates; Category (c): twenty States not elected under (a) or (b) above, which have special interests in maritime transport or navigation and whose election to the Council will ensure the representation of all major geographic areas of the world: Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

The IMO Council is the executive organ of IMO and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the work of the Organization. Between sessions of the Assembly, the Council performs all the functions of the Assembly, except that of making recommendations to Governments on maritime safety and pollution prevention.

The Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management together with IALA and the City of Rotterdam are the host organizations for the 14th IALA Symposium to be held from 25 to 29 May 2020 in the Postillion Convention Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

This event will be the first symposium in its kind combining the topics of modern Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and the implementation of maritime services under the e-Navigation concept.

Programme is now available.

The Israel Navigation Workshop and Exhibition (INWE20) is a biennial event organized and sponsored by the Israel Association for Automatic Control (IAAC). The IAAC is a non-profit organization congregating a large number of members from Academe and Industry interested in the broad areas of Control and System Theory. IAAC is also a member of IAIN.

Following the huge success of previous events (more than 200 participants and 20 companies participating in the exhibition in 2018), the 2020 edition of the Israel Navigation Workshop and Exhibition has been scheduled for 27 January at the Daniel Hotel in Herzliya, Israel.

Programme and registration

ENC is the International Navigation Conference organized by the European Institutes of Navigation. ENC 2020 will be held in Dresden, Germany at a venue adjacent to the famous Elbufer, which is one of the most beautiful baroque structures.

To quote the organisers: ‘In navigation we currently see a number of important developments. Galileo and Beidou are about to achieve full operations. The first GPS III satellite has been launched. The experimental NTS-3 is under preparation. All systems are planning for the future, considering options such as inter-satellite links, optical time standards and new approaches using satellites at other altitudes. In addition, the industrialization of atom wave inter-ferometric inertial units has been announced recently.’

It was with immense shock that we learnt of the loss of Professor David Last, former President of the Royal Institute of Navigation (2005-2008), in an air accident off Anglesey, North Wales, on 25 November. His aircraft was reported missing after an extensive search which had to be suspended due to extreme weather, according to North Wales Police and HM Coastguard.

Professor Last was globally respected in the positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) communities. As recently as last week (19-21 November) he was taking an active role in the RIN’s International Navigation Conference in Edinburgh as one observer put it: ‘A gentle driving force with a great intellect.’

ION GNSS+ is the world’s largest technical meeting and showcase of GNSS technology, products and services. This year’s conference will bring together international leaders in GNSS and related positioning, navigation and timing fields to present new research, introduce new technologies, discuss current policy, demonstrate products and exchange ideas.

Submit your abstract today for ION GNSS+ 2020. The abstract deadline is March 5, 2020.

The IEEE/Institute of Navigation (ION) Positioning, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS) 2020 program is now available online.

IEEE/ION PLANS 2020 technical program will be centered around four technical tracks including Inertial Sensing and Technology; Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS); Integrated, Collaborative, and Opportunistic Navigation; and Applications to Automated, Semi-Autonomous, and Fully Autonomous Systems.

In addition to a commercial exhibit, this year’s program includes half-day pre-conference tutorials: Fundamentals of Inertial Navigation.

This year’s conference features researchers and engineers from around the globe, who will present their latest work in positioning and navigation technologies. Presentations range from fundamental research, to applications, to field test results with a particular emphasis on inertial navigation. Technical sessions cover a range of subjects for both beginners and seasoned professionals.

From Berlin the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on 20 November released analysis showing that a more competitive air transport sector in the Netherlands could generate 40,000 new jobs and nearly €8 billion in extra GDP for that nation’s economy by 2037.

An IATA study, Netherlands Air Transport Regulatory Competitiveness Indicators, recommends that to maximize the employment and prosperity opportunities created by a successful air transport industry, the Netherlands should:

– Increase the cap on aircraft movements and ensure cost-effective expansion of Dutch airports

– Avoid the introduction of new environmental taxes

– Continue to maintain slot allocation policy in line with EU and global best practice.

Containers tumbling into the sea, environmental damage – with reports of navigational error a seeming fact of life The Swedish Club has launched a new edition of Navigational Claims, which aims to provide an insight into the causes of these incidents and offers comprehensive loss prevention advice in order to avoid them.

The Swedish Club’s Loss Prevention team has reviewed its claims history, using its comprehensive bank of statistics to publish an insight into the latest trends, provide detailed case studies, highlight relevant International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS), and share commentary from a qualified pilot with first-hand experience of issues during port transit.

Every year 7 December marks the annual World Civil Aviation Day. This year it has even more significance as it has been 75 years since the signing of the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation. In ICAO’s words: ‘This calls for a celebration!’

From now until 7 December, ICAO wants to hear from you. They say: ‘Tell us on social media how civil aviation impacts your life. Show us how aviation has brought you to places you dreamed of visiting. Tell us how it has united you with your loved ones, share how aviation plays a role in your work, travels, etc. We’re looking for a variety of stories and we will be featuring the most inspiring ones on 7 December.’

Building on the success of the first two European Shipping Weeks, in 2015 and 2017, the third will take place between 17 and 21 February 2020. The week will feature an array of events with high-profile keynote speakers from the world of shipping and the European institutions.

European Shipping Week is a platform where EU policy-makers can meet and engage with European shipowners and other stakeholders from the maritime sector. Focus is on shipping, in all its different aspects, including the participation of sectors linked to the shipping industry.

On 11 November the Danish Maritime Authority announced that the EU-budget for structural funds is in its final phase of the current budget period and that there are still some funding opportunities available for maritime projects.

The Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme1 has open calls for seed money projects with a deadline of 9 December. Companies and organizations can apply for seed money, which may be used in projects that falls in line with the EU’s macro-regional strategy for the Baltic region. It is understood that it is possible to apply for funds up to €50,000.