“A space-based position, navigation and timing executive committee is developing a tri-agency tiger team – DOD [Department of Defense], DHS, and DOT – to assess information sources for complementary systems to GPS that can serve as a backup should there be any failures or anomalies,” Smith said. “Russia’s GLONASS [Global Navigation Satellite System], the U.K.’s Galileo, and other satellite-based systems are vulnerable to the same interference as GPS. So they are looking for a terrestrial-based system operating on a different frequency; eLORAN [enhanced LORAN] is one of those.
“Depending on tower configuration, eLORAN allows you to produce timing or positioning for a precise navigation system that would be high-power, low-frequency – just the opposite of GPS. It is very similar to legacy LORAN in that the large towers can push out a long signal. The accuracy and level of the timing you can push out depends on the number of towers available. If it is determined this is a useful technology, it could grow into navigation, as well, but right now our tasking is timing.”
The ongoing expansion of human activity in the Arctic, from recovery of natural resources to cruise and commercial cargo ships to military naval operations, has added a new element to the Coast Guard’s maritime safety mission. It is a difficult version of that mission due to the extreme cold, thick ice, lack of permanent stations ashore, and few ships – including icebreakers – or aircraft capable of winter operations there.
From paper notices to radio voice messages to LORAN to GPS to DGPS to GPS III to eLORAN, the goal has always been the same – to provide mariners with the best possible information, as quickly as possible, to improve the safety of marine transportation and recreational boating.
“From a navigation standpoint, we are looking to move our technology into the 21st century. How we currently pass safety information to mariners is really stuck in antiquated systems, such as local notes to mariners and other paper-based systems. So someone traveling from New York to New Orleans would have to pull several posts to mariners and look through numerous 60- to 70-page documents to find what they need,” Smith said. “The team on future navigation is looking at how to deliver that marine information using technology to allow mariners to get it quicker and in a useable format for their situational awareness.
“That means a Web-based system to allow them to download that information to integrated software on the bridge and leveraging AIS technology to push out more time-critical information we normally would send out on a broadcast voice notice. Those vessels having new secure AIS and those required to carry AIS can integrate that information into their electronic charts or radars. Hopefully, that is moving that information in near-real time to help mariners make decisions when and where they need it.”
The ongoing expansion of human activity in the Arctic, from recovery of natural resources to cruise and commercial cargo ships to military naval operations, has added a new element to the Coast Guard’s maritime safety mission. It is a difficult version of that mission due to the extreme cold, thick ice, lack of permanent stations ashore, and few ships – including icebreakers – or aircraft capable of winter operations there.
The Polar Star, the United States’ only operational heavy icebreaker, transits an ice field in the Southern Ocean en route to the Antarctic Chieftain, a disabled fishing vessel near Antarctica, Feb. 13, 2015. Polar Star‘s crew was participating in a multinational rescue operation for the Antarctic Chieftain’s crew. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. j.g. Gina Caylor
“We currently are able to meet seasonal demands with what is up there – a feasible mobile approach in the summer with the Coast Guard Cutter Healy [a medium-grade icebreaker] – but we are not capable of accessing the winter high ice because we don’t have [enough] heavy icebreakers,” according to Cmdr. Eric Peace, chief of the Mobility and Ice Operations Division. “We have two heavy polar icebreakers – the Polar Star is operational, but the Polar Sea is in Seattle [Washington] on inactive status.
“We are actively working on meeting the president’s recent challenge to advance the icebreaker program by two years, to 2020, but the U.S. hasn’t built anything with that capability in 40 years. It’s hard to tell how long that would take now. We have expedited and developed Coast Guard operational requirements, which basically determine what we need to have to perform our 11 statutory missions in the Arctic. Once that is transmitted, it can be turned into specifications for industry. But there are a lot of moving parts, so even once we define the requirements, there is a large part we can’t control – industry’s ability to build one, which we have estimated would cost about $1 billion each.”