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AIS being introduced in Canada......
I was discussing it with a friend of mine in Mil. Intel. here in The Great
North.
I thought I would pass it along as a perspective if anyone was interested.
It is knowledge that is generally available.
He wrote...
........."saw a brief explanation of the AIS transponders the other day. The
driving force behind this is to avert terrorism and to allow early
identification of vessels entering Canadian waters. Here is the flaw. Rouge
vessels will continue to drift under our radar in order to off-load refugees
and/or undesirables. Identifying regular but suspected cargo vessels early
will allow customs to better prepare for their arrival. Given that over 90%
of all containers have transported drugs at one time in their life, the only
way to search is with a team of custom officials which can take up to eight
hours for each container. Human intelligence, which is dreadfully lacking in
much of the world, is the only way to identify specific contraband
containers carrying people, weapons, bomb making material or drugs. You can
appreciate the difficulty when each ship has thousands of containers.
AIS on small vessels is unlikely to be mandated because of the cost
associated with each unit. Also from a privacy point, this would be like
putting a homing devise on every person to monitor their movement as they
traveled throughout their day. Unlike radar, AIS is an active system which
means that in order for me to see you, your AIS transponder must be turned
on and transmitting. The USA have been capturing signal suite groupings from
every vessel at every choke point in the world for a number of years.
Identifying individual vessels with an electronic signature allows them to
follow their movements globally. Unfortunately, if a piece of electronics is
switched out or upgraded, say in Singapore, (great cost) then the signature
is altered. Every system has its limitations."
FWIW.
Mark.
'Matileena'
3270 Bayliner
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