The maritime and inland waterways sectors are natural users of GNSS services: inter alia for track control, container ship-to-ship coordination, port approach and navigation, ship-to-shore coordination, shore-to-ship management, calamity abatement… These industries have more than 50.000 ships around the world and 15.000 boats on EU inland waterways. EGNOS and Galileo, combined with GPS, can contribute to safer and more efficient navigation.
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The Search and Rescue (SAR) service of Galileo is also a key service for the safety of fishermen and sailors. In some distress situations, it may take hours to locate an emergency beacon. The future Galileo SAR service
will be able to detect activated distress beacons and notify the appropriate rescue body nearly in real time. Moreover, a return message will be sent to the emergency beacon, notifying victims their distress signal has been received and help is on its way. In this context, the European Commission is a key actor in getting Galileo SAR acknowledged by
COSPAS SARSAT.
