Starting on January 1, 2009, under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), all passenger ships, high speed craft, mobile offshore drilling units and cargo ships of 300 gross tonnage and upwards regulated by the 160 Contracting Governments of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) must be tracked with a Long-Range Identification and Tracking system.

 This IMO regulation applies to:

1. passenger ships, including high-speed craft
2. cargo ships of 300 GT and above
3. self-propelled Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODU)

To comply with this regulation, these craft must be fitted with Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) equipment programmed to transmit the identity of the ship and its location. The LRIT communication capabilities of the on board equipment will have to be certified by an ASP (Application Service Provider) recognized by the Administration or an authorized LRIT Testing ASP.

Contracting Governments must implement a national LRIT Data Centre or join a Regional/Cooperative LRIT Data Centre, to which ships will report their positions four times per day. In addition, these centres shall be capable of communicating amongst themselves and exchanging position reports upon request. In particular, a ship having notified a port of impending entry (NOA) can be tracked by that particular port thanks to this system. Contracting governments will also be able to track any ship within a 1,000 nautical mile zone of its coastline, no matter what flag it is flying.

 Please click on the link to access the pdf files.

• MSC.202(81)  LRIT amendments to SOLAS
• MSC.210(81)  LRIT performance standard
• MSC.211(81)  Arrangements for the timely establishment of LRIT
• MSC.242(83)  Use of LRIT for Safety and Environment protection
• MSC.263(84)  Revised performance standards and functional requirements for LRIT
• MSC.264(84)  Revised performance standards for LRIT
• MSC.1/Circ.1256 (revoked)  Guidance on the implementation of the LRIT system
• MSC.1/Circ.1257 (revoked)  Guidance on the survey and certification of ships with the requirement to transmit LRIT information
• MSC.1/Circ.1258 (revoked)  Guidance for search and rescue services for LRIT
• MSC.1/Circ.1259  Interim revised technical specifications for the LRIT system
• MSC.1/Circ.1295  Guidance in relation to certain types of ships which are required to transmit LRIT information, on exemptions and equivalents and on certain operation matters
• MSC.1/Circ.1297 (replaces 1258 - revoked)  Guidance to search and rescue services in relation to requesting and receiving LRIT information
• MSC.1/Circ.1298 (replaces 1256)  Guidance on the implementation of the LRIT system
• MSC.1/Circ.1299  Transitional Arrangements and Measures for Accelerating the Completion of the Establishment of the LRIT System
• Annex 1 of MSC.1/Circ.1299  Transitional arrangements for the completion of the establishment of the LRIT System - Provisional List
• MSC.1/Circ.1307  Guidance on the survey and certification of compliance of ships with the requirement to transmit LRIT information
• MSC.1/Circ.1308 (replaces 1297)  Guidance to search and rescue services in relation to requesting and receiving LRIT information
• MSC.1/Circ.1309  Information communicated to the organization in relation to the establishment of LRIT data centres and their position in relation to developmental testing and the production LRIT system.
• MSC.1/Circ.1377  List of application service providers authorized to conduct conformance tests and issue LRIT conformance test reports on behalf of the administrations. This circular replaces the revoked MSC.1-Circ.1377.