Page 16: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2, 2006)

minor adjustments were necessary for most old OWS devices to comply. Ship owners and shipyards blindly installed and utilized whatever OWS could be obtained, so long as it was found on the

IMO list.

Recently, the IMO acknowledged that the old OWS standard was inadequate.

It promulgated a new, tighter standard.

Oily water separators meeting the new standard are now on the market. They are much better able to deal with the mixtures of water, oil, solvents, chemi- cals, and waste commonly found in the bilges of ships.

They provide significantly better mon- itoring and read-out features. And, they are less susceptible to by-passing and other manipulation.

The problem is that the IMO only requires installation of the new, improved OWS on ships built on or after

January 1, 2005 or on older ships that replace their old OWS equipment. As a result, it is possible, even likely, that 30 years from now there will still be a few ship plying international trade routes with oily water separators that are inad- equate. It is time for the IMO to step up to the plate and adopt an accelerated phase-out schedule for the old oily water separators.

Only then will chief engineers be able to perform their demanding work with- out the constant fear of prosecution, fines, and jail terms. 16 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

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Government Update

Friedman says.

Describing hardware like radar, guns and missiles, and how they work, isn't all that hard, he admits. "In previous editions I felt I was able to explain or describe them. The major challenge today is trying to describe software applications. How do you describe what's going on?"

The last edition of his book had a sec- tion on computers, but he gave up with this book because computers and soft- ware change too fast.

Where does Friedman find all the information for his book? He's "always collecting stuff." He shares information with other analysts and keeps up with the periodicals. "It helps to read French,

Italian, Spanish and German," he tells me. He attends shows like the Sea-Air-

Space Expo and Surface Navy

Symposium in the U.S.; Euronaval in

France; IMDEX Asia in Singapore; the

Pacific 2006 International Maritime

Exposition in Australia, and others. "Usually it's the same people who show up at all the show," he says. Many

Chinese companies do not exhibit out- side of China, he says. "The challenge is to get information from the people who don't exhibit at shows."

While providing information about the newest and greatest naval weapon sys- tems, the book still includes much mate- rial on older systems because some navy somewhere is still using it.

The future is promising, but not clear.

New systems like directed energy weapons and rail guns generate much excitement and Congress is willing to fund the development. But they keep getting pushed off into the future,

Friedman says. "Some people think if you can draw it and animate it, then you can do it," he says. "But the laws of physics not set by congress. These weapons are still pret- ty futuristic." While some systems cov- ered in the book are new, "most have been around forever," Friedman says.

Edward Lundquist is a retired U.S. Navy captain and a senior science advisor for

Alion Science and Technology. He sup- ports the Navy's Surface Warfare

Directorate in the Pentagon. (Continued from page 13)

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