Belligerent Nations?

For some ship operators the arrival of AIS (Automatic Identification System) technology has been like a trip to the dentist; you know it is good for you but you would much prefer it not to happen. Buying an expensive piece of shipboard equipment that tells everyone who you are and where you are going aggravates some ship owners’ commercial instincts yet, on the other hand, if it prevents their ships from becoming casualties it must be a good thing.

“The EU and the US are both looking at tracking ships at very long range using information transmitted by satellites,” Guido van Meel, a consultant to the Port of Antwerp who is also chairman of the European Seaports Organisation’s marine committee, explains, “but providing this kind of secure, global coverage would be costly, and it is not clear who would pay for it.” “Quite apart from the implications of such data being collected, collated and used towards gaining a commercial advantage,” notes the paper submitted to the IMO by the shipping organisations, “there appears to be little to prevent its potential use by terrorists, pirates or belligerent nations to identify a particular ship or type of ship, using the dynamic data to aid an interception from relatively long range.

“Knowledge of the course, speed and ETA of ships will make interception easy, and the rapid response of AIS will immediately reveal and invalidate any attempt at evasive maneuvering. In addition, there appears to be nothing to prevent a terrorist – or other criminal interest – once onboard a target ship, from tailoring information to suit its needs, or indeed from carrying on board its own replacement AIS terminal equipment to transmit misinformation,” the paper notes.