Essentially, you must consider whether or not you wish to transfer your existing paper
navigational methods and procedures to WECDIS. If so, with regard to the equipment, ask
yourself the following (not exhaustive and in no particular order):
• Is it ready now?
• Is it type approved ECIDS?
• Can it deliver military symbology?
• Can it integrate with existing sensors?
• Can it employ my navigation techniques?
• Does it offer proven pedigree and global support?
• Will it come with a full military edged training solution?
• Have I balanced the best product with the overall price?
• Is it ‘future proof’ and easily upgradable for new techniques?
• Will the whole package allow my fleet to ‘go digital’ with minimum fuss?
•
Step 4 – Equipment Purchase and Fit
• All the work conducted producing the requirement is now complete and
the effort expended will hopefully be rewarded. The next stage is to make
a decision on which equipment is the most appropriate for your needs,
based upon the work conducted in the earlier steps. If you are intending
to conduct training ‘in house’, then consider Step 5 prior to purchasing
equipment as there are additional purchases and considerations to
make. Once the decision is made the equipment can be purchased.
• When constructing the fit programme consider what ships will be fitted
first and last. Of course, this may ultimately depend on the fleet
operations, maintenance and refit schedule. It is worthwhile
documenting lessons learnt from the first fit so that mistakes are not
duplicated throughout the fit. Furthermore, maintain some form of
continuity of fit personnel to ensure that standards are maintained with as
few irregularities between ships as possible. Once equipment is fitted it is
essential that the equipment is properly integrated with sensors, aligned
with Radar Image Overlay (RIO) and tested with a set to work package to
ensure that what you have got is what you have bought.
Step 5 – Training
• Training is one of the most important aspects of
the entire process. It is a fact that some military
vessels are under no obligation to conform to
STCW training requirements, but most
do. Perhaps it is because they want to give their
personnel a recognised civilian accreditation, or
because they are nervous about the legal
outcome of a collision at sea, or because they
want to exceed the highest standards and not cut
corners. Either way, you must consider the time
and manpower cost of producing the following:
• A stand alone ECDIS course, bespoke for the equipment purchased.
• A course to teach the WECDIS element, bespoke for the equipment purchased.
• Gaining Flag State Course approval.
• Classroom equipment and training consoles.
• Training licenses for software.
• Provision of a bridge simulator.
• Integration of ECDIS into the bridge simulator.
• ECDIS/WECDIS instructors.
• All the above takes considerable time, money and most importantly expertise. I
cannot emphasise enough the importance of considering training at the very
beginning of the process.
• Generally speaking, the military have specialist roles on board that will need to use
the equipment in very different ways. Therefore, it is a recommendation that such
individuals receive bespoke training elements. The following courses and
elements may be required:
• Courses
• A Flag State approved IMO 1.27 Model ECDIS Course (40 hrs or 5 days).
• Equipment Specific training course if different manufacturer’s equipment has been fitted (8 hrs or 1 day).
• Elements
• Commanding Officers – Commanding Officers are required to check and approve the navigation plan. To that end
a module is required that teaches Commanding Officers how to check an ECDIS plan. This can be accomplished by
providing a plan with potential errors as an assessed serial. Quality controlling an ECDIS plan in my experience is
more difficult than a paper equivalent and therefore must be taken seriously.
• Navigating Officers – Having completed the generic IMO 1.27 ECDIS course, a new Navigator will undoubtedly
require a short module on how to Pilot the vessel utilising the ECDIS. Navigation courses will have to be changed
from being paper chart based to using ECDIS.
• Officer of the Watch (OOW) – Assuming you purchase a capable WECDIS, the system should be able to plot
screens and sectors, calculate relative velocity for use in OOW manoeuvres, RAS approaches, speed times distance
calculations, reporting points, reference points etc. In the past, much of this data was calculated by non-
commissioned Officers or ratings. To facilitate fast and efficient injection of data, I would therefore recommend a
short course that teaches how such data is input.
• Warfare Specialists – Consider the Warfare specialist operating form the operations room, but still having ‘control’
over the bridge in certain circumstances. Will they have a WECDIS repeat next to them for special
awareness? Consider what they may need from the WECDIS additional to basic understanding. A short course
highlighting the tactical functionality that a WECDIS can give is recommended.
• Technical Training – Consider that there may be a requirement for maintenance and defect rectification to be
conducted onboard. It may be that the Weapon Engineering branch are responsible for example, but they will
require training in how to fault find and rectify the equipment fault. Remember, this is a critical system.
• The important point is that it is vital to get the whole team involved. The
WECDIS in not solely a tool for the navigating officer – in the past the
paper chart was never hidden from the crew. Therefore, the more people
that are aware of the system then the more quality control that can be
achieved and ultimately the higher the standards of safety and efficiency
that will result.
• Due consideration must be given to the fact that the above courses are
not necessarily for life. They may need to be undertaken again if the
equipment significantly changes, or as ‘top up’ modules for individuals
that have changed roles throughout their career, or even for those that are
going back to sea following time ashore.
• The training element is going to take a lot of time, particularly with a large
fleet. However, you do not need to wait for the fit programme to start
before embarking on the training programme. By doing so you will
alleviate pressure and have trained personnel ready to begin the next
phase of the project. However, it is worth bearing in mind that willingness
and support is needed from the fleet to see this through properly.
Step 6 – Digital Transition
• The final phase of the process is to conduct the transition from navigating with paper charts to
being accredited to navigate paperless using WECDIS. If you have opted out of STCW then you will
be the arbiter of standards. However, if you must comply with STCW then your Flag State may have
to be involved in this process, as they must ensure that you meet their standards. If working with
the Flag State authorities, please note that this may take time and money to achieve.
• It may be necessary to nominate a lead WECDIS inspector who has intimate knowledge of the
system in order to manage this process and to act as liaison between the Flag State authority and
the Fleet. Importantly, the inspector is there not only to answer any questions the ship and Flag
State authority has regarding the use of WECDIS, but also to polish operator skills and ultimately
risk assess their ability to ‘go digital’. Ask the question, can you operate using WECDIS as well as, if
not better than you could on paper? It is only when you can categorically state that this has been
achieved that you should authorise the reduction of your paper folio down to that required for
RCDS mode or in accordance with your policy.
• The accreditation process should be applied to each individual platform and be tough enough to
stretch the bridge team’s use of WECDIS in all environmental and operational conditions. Critically,
the process must be tangible in that it must have clear objectives and assessment criteria. There
cannot be any vague elements in the accreditation process. The team can either achieve the
standard or they cannot. Every member of the bridge team that can hold a bridge watch should
have to go through this process in order to prove that they are confident and competent to use
WECDIS to safely navigate. For me, this was the most enjoyable part of the process as you see the
results of good training and planning come to fruition. The following are examples of assessed
serials that may be included as part of the accreditation process:
• System set-up
• Safety settings
• Administration
• Documentation
• Procedures
• Berth to berth planning
• Pilotage
• Blind Pilotage
• Coastal Navigation
• Anchoring
• Fixing
• GPS denial
• Loss of sensors
• Tactical use of WECDIS
• The assessment serials could take one day to complete per platform, or may be longer dependent
upon your requirement and that of the Flag State. It may be that serials can be conducted in a
simulated environment, although the preferred option should always be to execute the serials at
sea if the ship’s programme can permit. Once the ship achieves digital accreditation it is prudent
for ship’s teams to undergo this process annually in the simulator in order to maintain standards,
and prove internally that they can operate using WECDIS in all operational conditions