Portable Situational Awareness:
How Opentec is helping deliver superior situational awareness for Australian maritime patrols, where no other rugged computer had ever survived!

In 2006 Opentec was asked to develop a situational awareness/tactical terminal for use aboard Royal Australian Navy RHIBs (Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boats). These small open boats,  deployed by RAN frigates and patrol boats during coastal and offshore operations, operate in a mix of rough and smotth seas in Australian Territorial waters, as well as on patrols in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.

If you read the claims of some other rugged computer suppliers you'd believe this was a task any of them could take on. So when Opentec design staff were briefed that other vendors had provided tablet computers for trials (including one that was allegedly better than IP65 rated), but had never been able to supply a product that had survived more than 5 days at sea before suffering a catastrophic failure, they were keen to prove they could do better.

The design brief was simple: create a terminal that was water-proof (IP66 or better rated), was daylight readable, had a touchscreen that could be operated even if dripping with salt spray, could be easily dismounted from its mounts in seconds for either storage or to be hand held by a forard observer, yet couldn't be dislodged from that mount even in the roughest of seas, did not have more than one cable supplying both power and data, and could be washed down after an operation.

Further, the system had to feature a combination power/data connection that was IP67 sealed, made of marine grade stainless steel and feature Navy approved sheathing that would neither tear nor deteriorate in salty air or prolonged exposure to salt water and strong sun (UV) over extended periods; and that could be removed quickly using one hand.

After a short develoment cycle, Opentec began shipping the first of more than 60 units in early 2007. More than three years later, these units remain in active service, providing a unique, easy-to-use and highly reliable system for navigating and sharing tactical data securely at sea in a role where previously no real-time tactical information had been available, other than by radio (non-secure voice only).

As part of the overall solution, deployed by ATI of Canberra (developers of the MAC situational awareness software and UHF/VHF communications system), the RPT 8-M series Super Rugged tablets required a marine grade stainless steel mount that could be loaded one-handed, had a sun visor durable enough not to break of fallen against but not able to injure the person falling against it, and robust enough to be fallen on our used to lean on without compromising the operation of the tactical display.

The result is a better-than IP66 rated tablet computer, in an adjustable stainless mounting bracket that has proven itself able to operate in Northern Australian coastal waters, as well as the Gulf in extremes of heat (50C plus), extremes of moisture (salt water breaking over the boats during operations) and extremes of vibration and impacts as a result of the boats wave jumping and bottoming out in heavy swells.

Just another genuinely Rugged Solution to a genuinely Rugged application requiring a genuinely Rugged portable computer!

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  Product information:
      MAC2 (Mobile Asset Command & Control)
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  Presentations: 
      MAC2: a Network Centric Situational Awareness Solution (PowerPoint presentation)
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