A domestic system will be developed to provide a “common maritime picture” in the seas encircling Turkey, as well as to share this with related institutions.

A cooperation protocol between HAVELSAN, a pioneer in producing software-based solutions for the country's defense industry, and the Directorate General of Coastal Safety (KEGM) was signed in this regard, an Anadolu Agency (AA) report said Wednesday.

Within the scope of the signed protocol, all vessel traffic services connected to the KEGM or the National Automatic Identification System (Nationwide AIS) and dynamic monitors and data from auxiliary sea cruise will be integrated in real-time, and a web-based system will be developed to filter and share the data with relevant institutions.

KEGM General Manager Durmuş Ünüvar said that the cooperation and solution partnership with HAVELSAN that started with the Turkish Straits Vessel Traffic Services System Upgrade continues with the Common Maritime Picture Official Protocol.

“We provide important services in equipping all systems we use with domestic and national software and systems. This understanding will continue in this way from now on,” he said.

HAVELSAN chairman Mehmet Akif Nacar recalled that there was also a protocol signed with the KEGM in 2019.

"Our protocol has been prepared based on this previous agreement and using the capabilities gained within the scope of the Turkish Straits Vessel Traffic Services Project. We will use data and track information from different systems used in our seas. We will create a common maritime picture with these traces and data and share it with the relevant institutions,” Nacar said.

Expressing that the software to be developed will have an infrastructure suitable for integration with systems that will generate traces and data that will be established in the future for maritime traffic, Nacar said: “The software will be flexible enough to comply with the coastal-based technologies developed in accordance with the e-cruise strategy of the International Maritime Organization. It will not require changes in the systems established by the institutions or the operation of these systems.”