Digital charting: a Royal Navy navigator´s view

The IMO have given their approval to the concept of an electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) (IMO Assembly resolution A.817(19)) but the detailed technical specification required for Type Approval is still to be completed. Meanwhile, the approved `vector data´ required for ECDIS is only just beginning to be available and its form is still evolving. The Royal Navy is moving towards adoption of this new technology and has mandated its use for a future class of frigate. It is already involved in trials of prototype equipment, albeit using a (raster) data format which has yet to receive international approval. Trials supported by UK manufacturers and the UK Hydrographic Office are proving beneficial to all involved and vector data was incorporated during 1996. The need to strike a balance between adapting current navigation techniques to the electronic era and devising new ones has already been recognised, as is the inevitable impact on training. The ability to measure positions, bearings and distances far more accurately than ever before is putting the hydrographers on their mettle, while the need to understand and correctly apply datum shifts and match projections when displaying different forms of data is posing a new challenge for the navigator. The end of the paper chart in the RN may be forecastable but is not yet in sight and there are a number of questions that need to be resolved before ECDIS becomes accepted as the prime method of navigation