THE ASSEMBLY,
RECALLING
Article 15(j) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning
the functions of the Assembly in relation to regulations and guidelines concerning
maritime safety,
RECALLING ALSO resolution
MSC.36(63) by which the Maritime Safety Committee, on 20 May 1994, adopted the
International Code of Safety for High-Speed Craft (HSC Code),
RECALLING FURTHER resolution 1 by which the Conference of Contracting
Governments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974,
on 24 May 1994, adopted amendments to the 1974 SOLAS Convention, including a new chapter
X on Safety measures for high-speed craft, which makes the provisions of the HSC Code
mandatory under that Convention for all such craft constructed on or after 1 January
1996,
BEARING IN MIND that section 13.13, of the
HSC Code which requires that all navigational equipment to which chapter 13 applies
should conform to performance standards not inferior to those adopted by the
Organization,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation
made by the Maritime Safety Committee at its sixty-fourth session,
1. ADOPTS the Recommendation on Performance Standards
for Navigational Radar Equipment for High-Speed Craft set out in the Annex to the
present resolution;
2. RECOMMENDS Governments to
ensure that navigational radar equipment required to be carried on high-speed craft
conform to performance standards not inferior to those set out in the Annex to the
present resolution;
3. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety
Committee to keep these Performance Standards under review and to adopt amendments
thereto, as necessary;
Annex Recommendation on performance standards for navigational radar equipment for high-speed craft
01 Introduction
1.1 The radar equipment is intended for installation
in high- speed craft (HSC) with the following characteristics:
.1 a maximum speed of 70 knots;,
.2 a maximum
rate of turn 20 degrees/s; and
.3 a normal range of
operation between latitudes 70 degrees N and 70 degrees S.
1.2 In addition to the general requirements contained in resolution A.694(17), the radar equipment should comply with
the following minimum performance requirements.
02 General
The radar equipment should provide an indication, in relation
to the craft, of the position of other surface craft, obstructions, buoys,
shorelines and navigational marks, in a manner which will assist in navigation and
in avoiding collision.
03 Range performance
The operational requirement, where the radar antenna is
mounted 7.5 m above sea level, is that the equipment should give a clear indication
of surface objects, such as for example a navigational buoy having an effective
echoing area of approximately 10 m**2 at 2.5 nautical miles in the absence of
clutter.
04 Minimum range
The surface objects specified in 3 should be clearly displayed
from a minimum range of 35 m up to a range of one nautical mile, without the need to
change the setting of controls other than the range selector.
05 Display
5.1 The equipment should, without external
magnification, provide a multi-colour daylight display with an effective radar
picture diameter of not less than 250 mm.
5.2
Day and night colours should be provided; it should be possible to adjust
brightness.
5.3 The equipment should
provide the following set of range scales of display:
0.25, 0.5,
0.75, 1.5, 3, 6, 12, and 24 nautical miles.
5.4 Additional range scales may be provided.
5.5 The range scale displayed and, when in use, the distance
between range rings should be clearly indicated.
5.6 Off-centre facilities should be provided of at least a minimum of
50% and not more than 75% of range scale in use.
06 Range measurement
6.1 Fixed electronic range rings should be provided
for range measurements as follows:
.1 on the range scales
of 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 nautical miles, at least two range rings; and
.2 on all other range scales, six range rings.
6.2 A variable electronic range marker should be provided
with a numeric readout of range.
6.3 The
fixed range rings and the variable range marker should enable the range of an object
to be measured with an error not exceeding 1% of the maximum range of the scale in
use, or 30 m, whichever is the greater.
6.4
It should be possible to vary the brilliance of the fixed range rings and the
variable marker and to remove them completely from the display.
07 Heading indicator
7.1 The heading of the craft should be indicated by a
line on the display with a maximum error not greater than +/- 1 degrees. The
thickness of the display heading should not be greater than 0.5 degrees measured at
maximum range at the edge of the screen.
7.2
Provision should be made to switch off the heading indicator by a device which
cannot be left in the "heading marker off" position.
08 Bearing measurement
8.1 Provision should be made to obtain quickly the
bearing of any object whose echo appears on the display.
8.2 The means provided for obtaining bearing should enable
the bearing of a target whose echo appears at the edge of the display to be measured
with an accuracy of +/- 1 degrees or better.
8.3 A minimum of two lines for parallel indexing should be available.
09 Discrimination
9.1 The equipment should be capable of displaying as
separate indications on a range scale of 1 nautical mile or less, in the absence of
sea clutter, two 10 m2 targets at a range of between 50% and 100% of the
range scale in use, and on the same azimuth, separated by not more than 35 m in
range.
9.2 The equipment should be
capable of displaying as separate indications two (10 m2) targets both
situated at the same range between 50% and 100% of 1 nautical mile range, on the 1.5
nautical mile range scale and separated by not more than 2.5 degrees for X band
radars and 4 degrees for S band radars.
10 Roll or pitch
The performance of the equipment should be such that when the
craft is rolling and pitching up to +/- 10 degrees the range performance
requirements of 3 and 4 continue to be met.
11 Scan
The scan should be clockwise, continuous and automatic through
360 degrees of azimuth. The scan rate should not be less than 40 revolutions per
minute. The equipment should operate satisfactorily in relative wind speeds of up to
100 knots.
12 Azimuth stabilization
12.1 Means should be provided to enable the display to
be stabilized in azimuth by an approved directional sensor. The equipment should be
provided with an approved directional sensor input to enable it to be stabilized in
azimuth. The accuracy of alignment with the approved directional sensor transmission
should be within 0.5 degrees, with a rate of turn of 20 degrees/s.
12.2 The equipment should operate satisfactorily in
the unstabilized mode when the main approved directional sensor is
inoperative.
13 Performance check
Means should be available, while the equipment is used
operationally, to determine readily significant drop in performance relative to
calibration standard established at the time of installation, and that the equipment
is correctly tuned in the absence of targets.
14 Anti-clutter devices
Suitable means should be provided for the suppression of
unwanted echoes, i.e. from sea clutter, rain and other forms of precipitation,
clouds and sandstorms. It should be possible to adjust manually and continuously the
anti-clutter controls.
15 Operation
15.1 The equipment should be capable of being switched
on and operated from the place at which the navigator normally operates high-speed
craft.
15.2 Operator controls should be
accessible and easy to identify and use. Where symbols are used they should comply
with the recommendation of the Organization on symbols for control on marine
navigational radar equipment.
15.3 After
switching from cold, the system should be operational within 4 min.
15.4 A standby condition should be provided from which
the equipment can be brought to an operational condition within 15 s.
16 Interference
After installation and adjustment on board, the bearing
accuracy as prescribed in these performance standards should be maintained without
further adjustment, irrespective of the movement of the craft in the earth's
magnetic field.
17 Display modes
17.1 The equipment should be capable of operating both
in relative and in true motion.
17.2 The
radar origin should be capable of being off-set to at least 50% and not more than
75% of the radius of the display.
17.3
Where sea or ground stabilization is provided, the accuracy and discrimination of
the display should be at least equivalent to that required by these performance
standards.
18 Antenna system
18.1 The design of the antenna system should enable it
to be installed in such a manner that the operational efficiency of the radar system
as a whole is not substantially impaired.
18.2 The antenna system should be so designed as to withstand the forces
expected to be experienced by such craft.
19 Operation with radar beacons
19.1 All radars operating in the 3 cm band should be
capable of operating in a horizontally polarized mode.
19.2 It should be possible to switch off any signal
processing facilities which might prevent a radar beacon from being shown on the
radar display.
20 Multiple radar installations
Where it is required that two radar installations be carried,
they should be so installed that each radar can be operated individually and both
can be operated independently.
21 Interface
21.1 The radar system should be capable of receiving
information from equipment such as gyro-compass, speed and distance measurement
equipment (SDME) and electronic position-fixing systems (EPFS) in accordance with
international standards *.
21.2 The
radar should provide an indication when any input from an external sensor is absent.
The radar should also repeat any alarms on status messages concerning the quality of
the input data from its external sensors which may influence its operation.
* Refer to IEC 1162:1994. 22 Navigational information
The radar display should be capable of presenting in graphical
form positions and navigational track lines, e.g. way-points and tracks between
way-points, in addition to radar information. The source of the graphical
information should be clearly indicated.
23 Target trails
Target trails should be displayed by the radar echoes of
targets in the form of synthetic afterglow. The trails may be either relative or
true. The true trails may be sea or ground stabilized.