As the leading provider of warship navigation and situational awareness software recognized by navies around the world, OSI has ensured that its flagship product has kept pace. ECPINS 6 meets the IMO ECDIS standard and is the only software that is independently certified to be fully compliant with NATO WECDIS Edition 2 (“WECDIS 2”). OSI is well-versed in these standards and understands the benefits it brings to its customers.

WECDIS 3 (NATO STANAG 4564 Edition 3 – Warship Electronic Chart Display and Information System) embodies the collective wisdom of NATO’s naval experts regarding the safe navigation and situational awareness of warships. Since warships operate in circumstances that extend beyond those envisioned by the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) standard, WECDIS 3 goes far beyond ECDIS and specifies capabilities that support such operations as high-speed navigation, prevention of mutual interference, precision pilotage, dived navigation, and operating in a GNSS-denied environment.

The NATO Standardization Agency published WECDIS Edition 3 in April 2017. It took effect immediately on its release. WECDIS 3 describes state-of-the-art capabilities that offer to its adopters the significant benefits of increased safety, interoperability, and a common set of functions. These adopters will be most NATO navies and many of navies that work with them.

WECDIS 3 features

Driving the WECDIS 3 standard is the need to equip NATO warships with a common set of capabilities and to ensure interoperability by facilitating the exchange of information between ships and between each ship’s systems. WECDIS 3 data exchange examples include:

• WSM sets (Waterspace Management) – for the prevention of mutual interference
• NATO-standard signals such as OPTASK, MOVEREP, and SUBNOTE
• AML (Additional Military Layer) Editions 3, 2, and 1 – for operation-specific and special-purpose charts
• NUDL (NATO User Defined Layers) – for operation-specific and special-purpose overlay data
In addition to supporting and extending interoperability, WECDIS 3 supports notable advances in other areas:
• Enhanced positioning tools – For example, auto DR, set and drift calculations, Pool of Errors reduction, running fixes, and fixing by soundings and contours.
• Enhanced planning, especially for dived navigation – For example, moving havens, PIM, vertical cross-track corridor, minimum expected depth, and dynamic chart objects.
• Enhanced watchkeeping – For example, sector screens, dynamic safety contour, and total depth display.
• Modernized military and civilian chart formats – For example, S-100 Universal Hydrographic Data Model, S-101 Geospatial Standard for Hydrographic Data, S-102 Bathymetric Surface Product Spec and the NATO GWMW AML Portrayal Specification.

Full compliance

OSI has already begun to advance ECPINS along its course to WECDIS 3 compliance by developing features in response to the needs of its naval customers and through its knowledge of the field. Today, ECPINS Warship 6 contains 78% of the WECDIS 3 features required for compliance. OSI is aiming for full compliance with tomorrow’s ECPINS Warship 7.