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A maritime technology company based in Westfield has signed a £70 million contract to provide a nautical management system for an unnamed Asian country.
SRT will help develop and implement the project over three years. The company is based at Westfield Industrial Estate.
The deal includes Automatic Indentification System (AIS) technology, radar, CCTV, environmental sensors to be installed across the country’s coastline and an integrated network of national, regional and local control rooms.
AIS is air traffic control for boats, transmitting information about a ship’s type, co-ordinates, course, speed and its unique identifier all in real time. Ships fitted with the technology form a tracking network along with base stations and satellites.
The SRT project will provide maritime security with automated threat identification and management and help monitor, license and manage of one of the world’s largest fishing fleets to assist with the prevention of illegal fishing.
In addition the technology will help manage the fish stocks, monitor sensitive marine environments, enhance maritime search and rescue and improve general safety at sea.
SRT CEO Simon Tucker said: “This is a substantial maritime domain awareness project involving many stakeholders and we have been working towards this for several years.
“SRT’s many years of investment has resulted in our Marine Date Management (MDM) system with its proven performance and unique functionality.
“This, coupled with SRT’s expertise in the area of large scale national maritime monitoring systems, made us the natural choice. We look forward to working closely with our customer to deliver this significant project in the coming months and years.”
SRT was founded in 1987 and in 1999 began developing AIS technology. In early 2006, it became the first company to develop a low cost technology platform supporting the International Maritime Organisation’s AIS.
As a result of a global IMO-sponsored mandate for the use of AIS, today the technology is being adopted and implemented worldwide in the marine market as the next generation of radar.
A statement from SRT said: “Our systems are entirely developed in the UK with 95 per cent of revenues derived from exports.
“With around 26 million vessels operational globally and a growing demand from national authorities that vessels operating in their waters to fit AIS as standard, SRT, the leading global provider of AIS technology, is at the forefront of a rapidly developing and evolving multi-billion dollar maritime market.”
SRT declined to name the country involved. A spokesman said: “We’re under strict confidentiality rules preventing us from being able to reveal the exact location. At this point all we can say is Asia.”
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