ECDIS Expands into WECDIS Market
ECDIS have delivered a five-day WECDIS course on OSI ECPINS-W systems to the Brazilian Navy in what is hoped to be the start of further cooperation between the two organisations. The ECDIS WECDIS course is the full five-day IMO 1.27 ECDIS course, including use of additional warfare functionality to demonstrate tactical use of the system.
Included in the course are elements of submarine navigation such as Pool of Errors, Target Motion Analysis and contact manipulation. The course also covers the use of different coordinate systems, Additional Military Layers and Battlespace Management (Air and Sea).
Mark Broster, Managing Director of ECDIS Ltd says, "It is evident that increasingly more military nations are purchasing ECDIS and WECDIS systems. As they make the transition to digital navigation they want proper and appropriate training and it is our aim to help take their ECDIS knowledge to the most advanced level. We have found that many fleets both commercial and military proudly promote the idea of high standards of navigation training, but often fail to deliver. It is great to see that the South African and Brazilian Navy are pushing for the highest standards, by utilising ECDIS Ltd as part of their training solution."
Corvette Captain André Moraes Barros of the Brazilian Navy adds, "The ECDIS Ltd five day course gave us a good knowledge about the system. Despite a class of students ranging from submariners to engineers, everyone ended the week with confidence in the system and its capabilities. The fact that the teacher was a former Royal Navy Officer helped us to understand and utilise the system features in accordance with our naval requirement."
The delivery of ECDIS training to the Brazilian Navy is the fourth military nation that ECDIS Ltd have trained. Customers also include the Trinidad and Tobago Coastguard, Republic of Singapore Navy and the South African Navy.
Lieutenant Novoa of the South African Navy adds, "The instructors were very knowledgeable on the subject and the programme. It was very helpful having an (ex) Naval Navigator present as he knew exactly what was expected of us. The fact that he was also an ex Royal Navy (RN) member of Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) gave us the added perspective of training and evaluating. The instructors were also friendly and approachable. I would definitely recommend getting them again in the future for training and/or re-training."
