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Oil Pollution Act of 1990 which resulted from that event; and a shared interest between Coastal 

 Corporation and Raytheon in systems which could lead to safer oil tanker operation in shallow 

 waters. OPA 90 states, in part (Section 411), and I quote: 



"Studies are required to... evaluate the adequacy of navigation equipment and 

 systems on tankers including sonar, electronic chart display, and satellite 

 technology..." 



Based upon the above, Raytheon in partnership with the Coastal Corporation, has developed a 

 system we call Automated Vessel Alert System, or AVERT. AVERT is a sonar system 

 incorporating unique, patented signal processing techniques coupled with the use of digitized 

 oceanographic chart data and satellite navigation. This system provides for operator alerts 

 whenever the sonar detects underwater objects which are not charted, or which represent a 

 possible hazard to safe navigation. Our market surveys indicated that there were a minimum of 

 1,000 80,000 and greater DWT tankers of less than 15 years age which could use such a system, 

 together with some 300 military amphibious support, sea lift and cargo ships, and 300 large luxury 

 cruise ships. 



After having conducted feasibility testing on Raytheon's own research vessel, we initially 

 approached ARPA during the early phases of the TRP process in 1993 and were enthusiastically 

 received. Our subsequent proposal received letters of endorsement from NUWC, the U.S. Coast 

 Guard Research and Development Center, the Oceanographer of the Navy, and the National 

 Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the State of Rhode Island proposed to invest 

 matching fiinds. While not funded as a TRP project, Raytheon proceeded with Coastal 

 Corporation to develop a prototype which was installed on MV COASTAL CORPUS CHRISTI 

 and is operating successfiilly with considerable crew acceptance. We are convinced that AVERT 

 can help prevent incidents such as EXXON VALDEZ, the QEII grounding in Cape Cod Bay and 

 the grounding and fiiel oil spillage of the Greek tanker off Newport on Brenton Reef together 

 with the many other such accidents which occur routinely around the world. In fact, we are also 

 convinced that once experience data has been gathered, insurance rates will reduce sufficiently to 

 offset the cost of AVERT and its installation. 



The shipping industry, however, is very cost competitive and may be loath to invest without 

 incentives. We respectively suggest that it may be timely to revisit the provisions of the Oil 

 Pollution Act of 1990 to determine whether stronger incentives for the installation of systems like 

 AVERT should be encouraged. 



Lastly, I would like to recognize the attempts by many of those who spoke to you today to 

 achieve higher degrees of collaboration amongst the group of capable organizations in the region. 

 And I'd like to preface this by being self-critical. 



The capabilities, the technologies, and the talent are available in this region to be a world leader in 

 the marine sciences. We could do much better if we were to take a regionalized, system-oriented 



