V-RMTC VIRTUAL REGIONAL MARITIME TRAFFIC CENTRE

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V-RMTC

VIRTUAL REGIONAL MARITIME TRAFFIC CENTRE

ANNUAL ANNUAL

REPORT REPORT

2008 2008

WIDER MEDITERRANEAN COMMUNITY

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This Annual Report finds the Virtual Regional Maritime Traffic Centre (V-RMTC) at an important step of its evolutionary process.

Conceived in 2004, during the 5 edition of the Regional Seapower th

Symposium for the Navies of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Countries, the V-RMTC obtained its Full Operational Capability (FOC) in September 2006, in time for the official step-up of the Wider Mediterranean Community (WMC). The V-RMTC WMC signing ceremony was held in Venice, on 12 October 2006, during the 6 th

edition of the Regional Seapower Symposium. On that occasion, 17 Navies signed the Operational Arrangement (OA) of the V-RMTC WMC: Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, Unites States of America.

Two years after its constitution, the WMC includes today 23 members, thanks to an enlargement process that saw the progressive addition of the Navies of Germany (November 2007), Bulgaria (January 2008), Belgium, Georgia, the Netherlands and Senegal (October 2008). These last four new members signed the Note of Accession (NOA) to the OA of the V-RMTC WMC during the 7 edition of the th

Venice Symposium, thereby testifying the significance of this event as a key instrument for the promotion of Dialogue & Cooperation in the maritime environment.

As a matter of fact, the theme of the 7 edition of the Symposium wasth

“Navies promoting Dialogue and Cooperation in a comprehensive perspective”.

Besides the addition of five new members, 2008 was also crucial for the conduct of trans-regional experiments that confirmed the opportunity to pursue V-RMTC external growth through a federative approach based on “open systems with an open architecture”.

2009 will be crucial for the evolution of the information sharing process in the trans-regional dimension, following the trans-regional tests conducted in summer 2008 and on the outcomes of the 4 V-RMTC Experts’ Reunion and Annual V-RMTC th

Meeting, both held in Rome last December.

The results achieved by the V-RMTC and its potential developments clearly demonstrate that maritime strategies should be pursued with strong “regional focus”

in a “global perspective”, in line with the concept of global maritime partnerships.

The Wider Mediterranean Community

V-RMTC ... where maritime surveillance knows no borders...

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V-RMTC

… where maritime surveillance knows no borders ...

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4 V-RMTC

Main features

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V-RMTC

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5 COST-EFFECTIVENESS

FLEXIBILITY

TRANSPARENCY

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6 V-RMTC

COST-EFFECTIVENESS

TRANSPARENCY FLEXIBILITY

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Flexibility

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7 The V-RMTC Model allows each community member to decide its level of participation and data disclosure thanks to a flexible system's architecture.

V-RMTC 5 + 5 NETWORK

V-RMTC WIDER MEDITERRANEAN COMMUNITY

RECOGNIZED MARITIME MERCHANT PICTURE FOR LEBANON (RMMP-L)

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8 V-RMTC

COST-EFFECTIVENESS

TRANSPARENCY FLEXIBILITY

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Transparency

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9 V-RMTC Model applications allow for egalitarian shareholding structures and data distribution dynamics inspired to a will-to-share principle, both providing transparency to the system.

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10 V-RMTC

TRANSPARENCY FLEXIBILITY

COST-EFFECTIVENESS

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Cost-effectiveness

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11 The V-RMTC Model offers a good combination of low development & implementation costs and effective savings optimising usage of patrol assets.

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12 V-RMTC

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2008 Review

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During the entire year, V-RMTC operations continued to unfold regularly.

The onset of 2008 was characterised by the migration to the “new” software platform, an important accomplishment that followed the outcomes of the 3 rd

V-RMTC Experts' Reunion (Rome, 21 November 2007). The Community began to adopt this new software in December 2007, thereby commencing a technological switch completed at the end of February 2008. This innovation represented an important enhancement for the system, which also benefited from the introduction of other technical and operational improvements throughout the year. These improvements determined a strong expansion of the data volume, which peaked in August 2008, when monthly exchanged data reached the total of 166,000 contacts.

The global enhancement of the V-RMTC confirmed the inherently winning feature of “step-by-step” policies, characterised by long-term cumulative impacts, particularly suited to effectively develop multilateral international initiatives. The significant results achieved during 2008 also underline the importance of adopting “comprehensive management actions”, to properly govern the system's technical and operational evolution while, at the same time, promoting intensive information sharing throughout the Wider Mediterranean Community (WMC).

The functionality of the V-RMTC WMC and its focused contribution to maritime surveillance in the Wider Mediterranean region are very well shown by the maritime picture disseminated on a normal operations day, as shown in Exhibit 1.

MERSIT Client 2.x and the new Web Portal with associated Server Tools.

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In 2008, the V-RMTC WMC also contributed to “forward surveillance” by outlining a new perspective of the system's operational employment. This proved to be particularly useful to support maritime situational awareness within areas typically covered by multiple cooperating naval assets. This consideration is confirmed by the excellent contribution provided to the V-RMTC's common picture by WMC Navies operating in various peripheral areas of the Wider Mediterranean region. In fact, during the first quarter of 2008, the presence of naval units in the Indian Ocean allowed WMC members to share data related to the Arabic Gulf (see Exhibit 2) and to the Horn of Africa. Beyond their intrinsic tactical value, these data showed the enormous yet unexploited potential of the V-RMTC that derives from the increased number of

“information-providing” assets made available by member Navies. This experimental employment of the V-RMTC unveiled crucial forward surveillance capabilities, exploitable by any WMC asset, whenever and wherever deployed.

This new paradigm introduces the exploitation of V-RMTC as a “data collection system” fed by participating Navies, with available surveillance assets whose intrinsic mobility features it as a “maritime surveillance system that knows no borders”.

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Exhibit 1 – V-RMTC Wider Mediterranean Community picture.

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Another important factor in the V-RMTC's evolution is represented by the enlargement of its Community. Also from this viewpoint, 2008 was very fruitful:

after Germany and Bulgaria, which joined respectively in November 2007 and January 2008, four new important countries signed the Note of Accession (NoA) to the Operational Arrangement. The signing ceremony was conducted on 16 October 2008, during the 7 edition of the Regional Seapower Symposium. The th

new members – Belgium, Georgia, the Netherlands and Senegal – had a fundamental role to improve the coverage of the Black Sea and of the Wider Mediterranean's western portion, both north and south of Gibraltar. The Georgian Navy was particularly proactive in starting to exchange data with the WMC in December, soon after the training sessions provided by the V-RMTC Support Team.

The strategic relevance of this enlargement will add significant value to the activities of the WMC. As a matter of fact:

Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands are historically and traditionally present in the Mediterranean Sea, with qualified naval assets;

Bulgaria and Georgia allow the V-RMTC to gain better coverage of the Black Sea;

Exhibit 2 – Surface picture reported on V-RMTC by Italian units deployed to the Indian Ocean in early 2008 (MEDAL 08 Campaign).

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Senegal consolidates the coverage of the Mediterranean's western approaches, providing important contributions from an area strictly connected to the Sea Lines of Communication from and to Gibraltar, also featured by illegal migration flows and by the critical scenario of the Guinea Gulf.

The year 2008 was also crucial for the development of the trans-regional dimension of the V-RMTC Model, in adherence with the ideation of a “federation of networked systems”. This concept, launched in October 2007, at the 18 th

International Seapower Symposium (ISS) in Newport, is also in line with the Global Maritime Partnership concept. Following the outcomes of the Information Sharing Seminar held during the 18 ISS, the future perspectives of the V-RMTC Model and th

its trans-regional potential were presented to some Navies from outside the Mediterranean and Black Sea region – namely Brazil and Singapore – purposely invited as observers to the 3 V-RMTC Annual Meeting held in Rome on 22 rd

November 2007. On the outcomes of that meeting, in February 2008, the Italian Navy's Main Communications Centre (MARITELE ROMA) started to carry out bilateral tests to assess the technical feasibility of a trans-regional data exchange with Brazil and Singapore.

Given the need to gather unanimous consent from the V-RMTC WMC, these connectivity experimentations were structured along the following phased

“Testing Plan”:

Phase 1: to test trans-regional bilateral connectivity between the Italian Navy and selected Navies (Brazil and Singapore), using the V-RMTC test-bed platform (denominated Model 1), thereby avoiding any unwanted, unauthorised and unnecessary opening of the system to non-WMC members;

Phase 2: to display data provided by Brazil and Singapore on the V-RMTC WMC picture, thereby highlighting the importance of trans-regional contributions to the information sharing process and its value-added in terms of forward maritime surveillance;

Phase 3: to conduct tests requiring the system's actual opening, for limited timeframes, only upon receipt of the consent from all WMC members. These tests were announced in the Weekly Report and their outlines were published on the V-RMTC WMC Website.

16 2008 Review

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By July 2008, the Italian Navy got the unanimous consent of the V-RMTC WMC for the conduct of the required interoperability tests during selected and limited timeframes of 24-96 hours. These experimental connections were run in August 2008, in a transparent and controlled way. Every necessary technical adjustment was made to prevent access to the V-RMTC WMC database and its exploitation by extra-regional Navies not belonging to the WMC.

The trans-regional data-sharing experimentation between the V-RMTC WMC and the Brazilian Navy's SISTRAM was successfully concluded on the 6 of th

August, in line with the phased “Testing Plan”. Ad-hoc tests were also started with the Singaporean Navy whose system (OASIS) has good interoperability potentials with the V-RMTC Model.

In terms of data volume, SISTRAM and V-RMTC exchanged over 7,000 contacts during the last phase of the experimentation. Also the interoperability tests with the Singaporean Navy had outstanding outcomes, with over 10,000 contacts exchanged between OASIS and V-RMTC.

The excellent results are confirmed by the snapshot in Exhibit 3.

Exhibit 3 –Trans-regional experiments between V-RMTC, SISTRAM and OASIS.

The complete set of trans-regional results were displayed during the 7 edition of the Venice Regional Seapower Symposium, in October 2008, when all WMC members and the Brazilian and Singaporean Navies were represented at Navy Chief level.

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This coral endeavour and its positive outcomes are the best demonstration for the International Community that the V-RMTC can be easily connected with similar regional networks, thereby enabling the trans-regional federation of compatible systems. This stems from the V-RMTC main technical and operational features, which bring us to describe it as an “open system with an open architecture”. The outstanding achievements of V-RMTC in the trans- regional dimension are also an excellent outcome of the common will to cooperate shown by all involved Navies and of the huge potential that can be gained through a targeted and appropriate exploitation of the Internet.

The big efforts performed for trans-regional information exchange in 2008 and its results show that is now time to “turn words into actions” by demonstrating how coral endeavours to federate different regional systems may concretely support the projection of regional communities into a trans-regional dimension.

Exhibit 4 – Official photo of 7 Regional Seapower Symposium. ^th

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As a matter of fact, trans-regional initiatives as well as V-RMTC applications to real world operations are both boosting the general interest of the international maritime community towards the system. On 18 July 2008, Captain Pottengal Mukundam, Director of the International Maritime Bureau, visited the Italian Navy's Fleet Headquarters in Rome ( , where the V-RMTC Data Fusion Hub (DFH) is located. On that occasion, he expressed appreciation for the WMC effort in building and expanding the V-RMTC Network.

Exhibit 5)

Exhibit 5 –

2008

Captain Pottengal Mukundam visited the Italian Navy's Fleet Headquarters (Rome, 22 July ).

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The V-RMTC had special visibility also during the working sessions of the Regional Seapower Symposium for the Navies of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Countries, held in Venice between October 14 and 17 ( . The Symposium's outcomes testified the importance of Navies' effort in supporting foreign policies in their countries and their attitude to promote Dialogue &

Cooperation, at regional and global level. It also emerged the significant boost that maritime awareness and security can enjoy by projecting regionally- focused information into a trans-regional dimension. As agreed by participants, this projection can be achieved by a federative approach based on “open systems with an open architecture”, such as V-RMTC, in conjunction with regional systems established by other Navies outside the Wider Mediterranean region. It was also stressed that Navies affirm their will to cooperate for common security through a multidisciplinary and interagency approach, at national and international level.

Exhibit 6)

2008 Review

Exhibit 6 –

2008

Regional Seapower Symposium for the Navies of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Countries (Venice, 14 - 17 October ).

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Several events, documents and publications in the military and commercial maritime environment gave significant visibility to the V-RMTC during 2008.

In June 2008, the V-RMTC was mentioned as an example of effective regional military initiative by the European Commission in a Working Document on Maritime Surveillance Systems.

From June to September 2008, the main features of the V-RMTC Model were displayed at the Zaragoza Expo whose main theme was “Water and Sustainable Development”.

International interest for V-RMTC trans-regional applications was also confirmed at the Global Maritime Domain Awareness Conference in Valparaiso (Chile), between 3 and 5 December 2008; on that occasion, representatives from both the Brazilian and the Italian Navy displayed the results of the trans- regional experiments between SISTRAM and V-RMTC.

In a 2008 document by the Sea Power Centre of the Australian Department of Defence, titled “The Global Maritime Partnership Initiative”, an entire paragraph was dedicated to the V-RMTC, which was defined as “a leading example of a fully functioning regional maritime information exchange system that monitors maritime traffic in the Mediterranean, including the Atlantic and northern Red Sea approaches, and in the Black Sea”.

The V-RMTC annual international agenda includes two key events that are conducted jointly, between November and December: the V-RMTC Experts' Reunion, which represents the annual gathering of the WMC Steering Group;

the V-RMTC Meeting, which includes invited delegations from other regional and extra-regional Navies interested in the “V-RMTC Model”;

The 4 V-RMTC Experts' Reunion was organised in Rome on 1-2 December th

2008, to gather representatives from the WMC, plus Brazil and Singapore, for the discussion of several issues of common interest, including:

the technical and operational aspects of V-RMTC future developments;

the roadmap of trans-regional applications of the VRMTC Model through a federative growth, based on data-sharing tests with Brazil and Singapore.

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During the 4 edition of the V-RMTC Experts' Reunion, the WMC Steering th

Group touched several topics of general interest within the spirit of global maritime partnerships. Outcomes focused on the following main needs:

the establishment of a Trans-Regional Maritime Network Operational Arrangement (T-RMN OA), to define a technical and legal framework for the projection of the “regional maritime information sharing” concept beyond its current boundaries, through the creation of a “trans-regional federation” of existing regional surveillance networks;

the implementation of Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) by the Italian Navy's Fleet HQ (CINCNAV) on the basis of inputs provided by WMC members, to improve the system's daily management operations and its effectiveness;

the designation of requirements to allow the Italian Navy's technical team (MARITELE Roma) to develop new tools aimed at meeting WMC operational needs by enhancing the system's capabilities.

With respect to the previous point, a new software variant of the Portal is currently undergoing its final development stage for implementation

through the V-RMTC WMC in February 2009, including the improvement of data sharing capabilities.

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The V-RMTC Experts' Reunion was followed by the 4 Annual th

V-RMTC Meeting, held in Rome on 3 - 4 December, which allowed to disseminate results and future perspectives of the V-RMTC Model, as well as to assess its potential applications to the trans-regional dimension, through a selected number of countries strongly interested in the improvement of maritime surveillance: China, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and Ukraine.

Following participation of its representative to the Annual V-RMTC Meeting ( , the Irish Navy reported to be nationally assessing its possible request to join the WMC.

(Exhibit 7)

Exhibit 8)

2008 Review

Exhibit 7 – 4 V-RMTC Expert’s Reunion (Rome, 1 - 2 December 2008).th

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At the end of December 2008, the Indian Navy showed solid interest in the

“V-RMTC Model” and the possible trans-regional federation between WMC V-RMTC and the Indian Merchant Ship Information System (MSIS).

2008 Review

Exhibit 8 – Annual V-RMTC Meeting (Rome, 3 - 4 December 2008).

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2008 Statistics

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The statistics of 2008 show an overwhelming increase of shared information with respect to 2006 and 2007, as clearly shown by the graphs in Exhibit 9 and by the table in Exhibit 10. This is the best demonstration of the increased participation and involvement by WMC member Navies as well as of the development of improved operational procedure and technical tools.

Exhibit 9 – Exchanged data graphs for 2006, 2007, 2008.

Number of contacts

Exhibit 10 – Exchanged data figures for 2006, 2007, 2008.

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An excellent overview of the system's global statistics, showing exchanged data volumes since the beginning, is provided by graphing the monthly totals from October 2006 to December 2008, as reported in Exhibit 11.

2008 Statistics

Exhibit 11 – Monthly reported contacts for 2006-2008.

Number of contacts

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2008 Statistics

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Exchanged data volume neared 159,000 contacts in December 2008 and peaked at 165,000 in August of the same year, as reported in Exhibit 12, with a monthly average settled at circa 140,000 reports in the last quarter of the year.

These figures would have been unthinkable in the early stages of V-RMTC's development.

Exhibit 12 – Monthly reported contacts for 2008.

Number of contacts

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The overall and progressive improvement in exchanged contacts is very well shown by comparing aggregate data relative to each quarter, from the official start of the V-RMTC WMC (October 2006), as reported in Exhibit 13. The slight reduction in the last quarter of 2008 is due to minor interruptions of the normal data flow due to the implementation of a new software platform.

2008 Statistics

Exhibit 13 – Quarterly reported contacts for 2006 - 2008.

Number of contacts

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2008 Statistics

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Active participation of Naval Operational Centres as data contributors is a clear sign of the solid involvement of all WMC members as well as a crucial element testifying the outstanding cooperation spirit developed throughout the Community during almost four years of common endeavour.

Participation of WMC members in the network was very active during 2008, while three member Navies should still finalise some national issues, of technical and legal nature, to go active in the network. The overall contribution by percentages provided in 2008 by each Navy is shown by the pie-chart in Exhibit 14.

Exhibit 14 –The overall contribution by percentages provided in 2008 by each Navy.

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To give a better idea of 2008 actual contributions by single Navy, data volumes were split into two blocks, one including Navies providing up to 20,000 contacts per year (see Exhibit 15) and the other with Navies providing over 20,000 contacts per year (see Exhibit 16).

2008 Statistics

Exhibit 15 – 2008 data volumes from Navies providing up to 20,000 contacts per year.

Exhibit 16 2008 d– ata volumes from Navies providing over 20,000 contacts per year.

Number of contactsNumber of contacts

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2008 Statistics

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A clear sense of the increase in exchanged data, mainly connected with the V-RMTC “internal growth”, is provided by comparing aggregate figures for three-month periods starting in September 2006, when the system began its technical functionality. As shown in Exhibit 17, exchanged data volumes show a 100% increase between the quarter from December 2007 to February 2008 and the quarter from June to August 2008. This is an outstanding demonstration that 2008 was a crucial year in the operationalisation of the V-RMTC WMC network.

Number of contacts

Exhibit 17 D– ata volumes for three-month periods from September 2006 to August 2008.

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During 2008, likewise 2007, statistics were worked out by the V-RMTC Operational Team and disseminated to WMC member Navies via the Weekly Report and the 4-Month Summary Report, which includes also comments on the displayed figures, considerations on the system's functionality and general information on V-RMTC Reunions, Meetings and other events. A comprehensive summary of the 4-month aggregate figures for 2008 is reported in Exhibit 18.

Both the Weekly Report and the 4-Month Summary Report will continue to be regularly developed and disseminated in 2009:

Weekly Report, by the V-RMTC Operational Team at the Italian Navy's Fleet HQ in Rome (CINCNAV) in conjunction with the V-RMTC Technical Team at the Italian Navy Main Communications Centre in Rome (MARITELE ROMS);

4-Month Summary Report, by the V-RMTC Development Team at the Italian Navy's General Staff, Operations, Plans & Policy Department (MARISTAT).

2008 Statistics

Exhibit 18 2008 quarterly data – volumes.

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Commitments

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During 2009, V-RMTC will continue to represent a landmark system for information sharing in support of maritime awareness and security, at regional and trans-regional level. This requires a constant and coral effort by all participants, to enhance the system's technical and operational capabilities and to enlarge the number of data providers, both by growing the WMC and by developing trans-regional partnerships.

Concerning the system's improvement, the V-RMTC will consolidate its network capabilities, thanks to the introduction of a wide range of new tools.

These implementations, agreed by WMC members during the Working and Steering Group meetings of 2008, will be carried out by the V-RMTC Technical Support Team throughout 2009. Among the various necessary upgrades, the following improvements will get the highest priority: new geographical information and reference system, “Vessel Of Interest” qualification (VOI), track history display, dead reckoning tools, multi-chat capabilities, encrypted email availability.

Concerning the “enlargement issue”, two parallel growth lines of development will continue to drive the evolution of the V-RMTC programme:

“internal growth”, aimed at increasing membership in the Wider Mediterranean region through new WMC adhesions to the V-RMTC Operational Arrangement via the “NoA formula”;

“external growth”, aimed at developing new trans-regional partnerships through the application of the “federative formula” among different regional systems and possible synergies originated by extra-regional adoptions of the V-RMTC Model.

In terms of “internal growth”, the last addition of four new Navies to the WMC brought the total members to 23, with over 20% increase year-on-year.

With respect to new potential members, Ukraine and Ireland are still staffing, at governmental level, the possibility that their Navies officially apply to join the WMC in 2009.

The possible WMC growth represents a great opportunity to expand the V-RMTC database and to boost information sharing and confidence building through the entire Wider Mediterranean region.

for 2009

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With respect to the V-RMTC “external growth”, the encouraging results of the trans-regional tests conducted in 2008 with the Navies of Brazil and Singapore are very promising for the “projection of regional communities into a trans-regional dimension” through a comprehensive and federative approach in 2009. This year will be also important for the acquaintance of new extra-regional Navies with the system, following the interest generated by the last Annual V-RMTC Meeting.

As a matter of fact, during 2009, the Italian Navy will continue to coordinate the staffing process of the T-RMN OA and will also conduct bilateral technical tests with the Navies of Brazil, Singapore, India and any other interested extra- regional partner (test snapshot in Exhibit 19). This combined effort – involving policy, operational and technical activities – will be aimed at finalising the signature of the T-RMN OA by October 2009 as well as at consolidating and improving the trans-regional data sharing capabilities of the “V-RMTC Model”.

Exhibit 19 – Snapshot of trans-regional data sharing

Commitments for 2009

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