Maritime Security - The Virtual Regional Maritime Traffic Center (V-RMTC)

Maritime Security The Virtual Regional Maritime Traffic Center (V-RMTC) Una storia italiana di successo - An Italian success story The »Imperium Romanum« spread over nearly 6 million square kilometers of land; however, the trade was to a main extent done from the Mediterranean harbors with routes to Africa, into the Black Sea and over the North Atlantic into the Baltic. Key for control over such a large area was the ancient Roman information system. Messengers by foot or on horses as well as the signaling between the watch towers delivered vital information about conditions in the distant provinces and enabled the leaders to base decisions upon a precise situational awareness. It might be a mere coincidence that today Rome again hosts an information system that could become of global importance for Maritime Security. On the occasion of the 4th Regional Sea Power Symposium for the Navies of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Countries held in October 2002, all the delegates agreed to the requirement of enhancing the maritime traffic security in Mediterranean Sea safeguarding regional maritime activities. The Italian Navy promoted a project which allowed the adhering Navies to choose their own level of participation and the amount of national data exchanged. In June 2003 the initiative was favorably received by almost all the contacted Navies. Their added suggestions allowed in return the Italian Navy Staff, supported by Italian Fleet Headquarter (CINCNAV), the Italian Coast Guard Headquarter (MARICOGECAP) and the Italian Navy Main Communication Center (MARITELE ROMA), to set up the first step of the Project. During the 5th Regional Sea Power Symposium, held in Venice in October 2004, the Italian Navy presented the “Pilot Project Virtual Regional Maritime Traffic Centre (V-RMTC)”, immediately resulting in a great success. Since the beginning of the project a highly qualified and remarkable participation by the Mediterranean and Black Sea Navies has been recorded. The system reached the Initial Operational Capability (IOC) on 20th September 2006. On the 12th October 2006 the “Operational Arrangement” (OA) was introduced by the Italian Navy as the legal framework for the V-RMTC. It was initially signed during the 6th Regional Sea Power Symposium by 17 Countries, most of which have been historically involved in the 1 Mediterranean region: Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Jordan, Israel, Romania, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the USA. The content and amount of the provided data is independently chosen by each cooperating Navy, which is one of the remarkable parts of the V-RMTC concept. The system, employing Internet, commercial platform and software, proved at the same time to be money saving and easy to be managed. With the establishment of the “V-RMTC Wider Mediterranean Community” (V-RMTC WMC) the project dropped the concept of involving countries with a classical interest in the Mediterranean as well as its geographical boundaries; Germany and Bulgaria joined in 2007. The WMC was established in order to distinguish different V-RMTC communities while still using the same software application and model. The navies of Belgium, Georgia, Netherland and Senegal signed the OA of the Wider Mediterranean Community on 16th October 2008 during the 7th edition of the Venice Regional Sea Power Symposium, bringing the count up to 23 participating Navy members. Italy had launched another initiative of the “5+5 Maritime Security in the Western Mediterranean” (Rome, September 2005), comprising of five Navies of the WMC (Italy, France, Malta, Portugal and Spain) and five Navies from North Africa (Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia). This caused the creation of a separated roadmap completely independent from the Wider Mediterranean Community’s one. The challenges laid no longer on a mere system level as more in the diplomatic agreements, due to the politically created domains, which called eventually for different regional networks. The individual Areas of Interest (AOI) were created by hosting the information on separated systems using the same software application. During the third 5+5 Chief of Navies Meeting (Naples, 30th of May 2007) the signatures of the Operational Arrangement brought the Initial Operational Capability (IOC). The Operation “LEONTE” (following the Israeli-Lebanese crisis) called for a bilateral Italian – Lebanese agreement. Still in the sub-regional context, the V-RMTC model allowed cooperation in a very delicate field, such as Recognized Maritime Merchant Picture for Lebanon (RMMP-L). The software application of the V-RMTC Model in this scenario supports the Maritime Task Force (Italian units) operating under UNIFIL mandate with solely bilateral information exchange for a Maritime Picture. At this point the term Recognized Maritime Picture (RMP) could be misleading to the operational communities and has to be distinguished from the original definition used for example in NATO, where each and every contact is evaluated, categorized and classified. The available operational picture in the V-RMTC communities is to be understood more as a plain and unclassified Maritime Picture (MP) containing AIS-Data and unclassified 2 information. None of the tracks can contain or indicate classified and evaluated data due to IT-Security at this point. V-RMTC provides currently only unclassified Chat-Rooms and Forums within the communities for message exchange. National classified information about a »Vessel Of Interest« (VOI) still will have to be shared on bilateral and secured message exchange system (e.g. Voice, E-Mail, Fax, Teletype). These national or coalition systems are not part of the V-RMTC, but this information exchange is essential for a truly Recognized National Maritime Picture which enhances the Maritime Security of the participation countries. Nevertheless, the gained international credibility of the V-RMTC and its capabilities in- and outside the Mediterranean region called for Workshops in order to develop the Wider Mediterranean Community with other countries (such as India, Singapore, Ireland, Mexico and Brazil). They had sent their observers to assess the possibility to establish similar models in their own geographical areas. This interest brought a new dimension overcoming even the concept of the V-RMTC Wider Mediterranean Region. With the thought of a "Global Maritime Trusted Information Network", V-RMTC offers now with the Trans-Regional Maritime Network (T-RMN) a concept with a global dimension. 17th December 2008, V-RMTC 8+6 Seminar with Deputy Chief of the Italian Navy General Staff in Rome, Vice Admiral Luigi Binelli Mantelli of the Italian Navy A significant experimentation started in July 2008 with the Brazilian and Singapore Navies. Successful tests between the V-RMTC and the Brazilian system, called SISTRAM, were 3 conducted and, due to the flexibility of the model, by the end of September 2008 also with the Navy of Singapore. Different from V-RMTC, the introduction of National Liaison Offices will enable Singapore and the participating Nations to exchange in the future, in addition to the unclassified data, also nationally classified information in case of a military crisis, safety hazard or environmental danger. The political development in the Middle East however brought again a new and wider area of interest. The “8+6 Meeting”, held at Defense level in Manama on 10th December 2006, was followed by a formal invitation to an “8+6 Seminar” by the Italian Chief of Naval Staff (Admiral Paolo LA ROSA). The Seminar aimed at gathering representatives of the invited navies to discuss the Maritime Surveillance Dimension and to investigate the possibilities to make the “V-RMTC model” available to the 8+6 Community for possible adoption and implementation in 2009. The Italian Navy hosted the seminar in Rome on 17th/18th December 2008 to the benefit of six Gulf Cooperation Council members (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) and eight European countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and UK) belonging to the V-RMTC Wider Mediterranean Community. Based on V-RMTC Italy is currently developing the System for Inter-agency Integrated Maritime Security (SIIMS) with additional sensor data from satellite, radar, Vessel Traffic Systems and other sources, making the data and information exchange available to the Carabinieri, Coast Guard, State Police, Custom Police and Customs itself. The total amount of tracks in V-RMTC is listed a weekly, monthly and an annual report, send to the participating navies in the individual communities. Since the 2006 edition of the Venice Regional Sea Power Symposium, when the V-RMTC was rolled out for the Wider Mediterranean Community, the exchanged data volume per quarter increased by 700%, in July 2008 the monthly exchanged data volume exceeded a total of 150,000 contacts. 4 nd th 2 December 2008, the delegates of the 4 V-RMTC Experts Reunion & Annual Meeting The successful Italian story of V-RMTC will continue with the T-RMN and the 8+6 initiative. Providing all services, covering all cost of development and the technical support, the Italian Navy gained status and reputation by hosting the V-RMTC; so to speak with the T-RMN.