INSA

The Naval Codes

Many of the navies involved in INSA are now structuring their naval regulatory authorities around the Chapters of the Naval Ship Code and applying it in whole or in part to their new build and in-service warships. Some of the nations within INSA intend to apply the Naval Submarine Code in the same way.

Naval Ship Code

Naval Submarine Code

Naval Boat Code

Use of the Codes

INSA and NATO Versions

Merchant ships operate within the framework of international legislation overseen by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Navies strive to achieve a balance between safety and military capability, ensuring that peacetime activities are undertaken at an acceptable level of safety and for many navies this is set as being equivalent to merchant ships under civil legislation.

However, the key IMO safety document, Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) is unattractive for many naval ships because their military role demands design and operating solutions that are not compatible with the provisions of SOLAS; in some cases specifying compliance with SOLAS can lead to significant cost implications or a compromise of a ship's capability.

Recognising these limitations, NATO actively explored the issue and established a specialist team in 2004 comprising Navies and Classification Societies with the aim of developing a naval equivalent to SOLAS. The result of four years of work by the specialist team was the 'Naval Ship Code', developed to deliver: safety assurance benchmarked against statute, using common standards that are familiar world-wide and which recognise military operating requirements.

The Code developed, is a goal based standard which offers a framework for safety regulation with the same scope and an equivalent level of safety to IMO SOLAS. In December 2009 the first Edition of the NSC was published by NATO as ANEP-77. An annual update cycle is maintained with working groups focussing on different areas of the Code. The accepted updates are passed to NATO for review and publication in the next Edition.

The Naval Ship Code can be downloaded directly from the NATO website using the links below.

The use of the Codes is optional for navies and the INSA navies use them in a variety of ways to support safety within their organisations; some use them to undertake safety certification and often they are listed as requirements in new build specifications.

Navies may be actively involved in the way the Codes are complied with or it may be left to the shipbuilder to select the standards to meet the Codes. The Codes are goal-based, supported by Solutions and Justification/Guidance sections and together comprise of Tiers 0 – 5, split into 3 parts:

The Tier 0 Goal for the Ship/Submarine/Boat is the highest level goal and is the one against which certification can be issued.

Tier 1 Goals are provided for each Chapter and address the primary concern of that area and are not intended to set prescriptive requirements or to give specific solutions.

For each Chapter there will be a number of factors which can contribute to achieving the Tier 1 Goal. The Chapters are therefore split into Regulations, and grouped into a logical Regulatory framework, each with a Tier 2 Functional Objective. Across several Code Chapters, there may well be common Functional Objectives and cross-referencing of requirements from one chapter to another.

At Tier 3, Performance Requirements for each Regulation provide a set of requirements relevant to the Functional Objective which are to be complied with and verified during design, construction and operation, to meet the Tiers above. The Performance Requirements are independent of the technical or operational solution and have a qualitative character. This will allow for future alternative technical or operational solutions, which are not available at the time of development of the Code text.

‘The Code’ comprises Tiers 0-3 and is contained in Part 1. This provides the regulatory aspects and for the Naval Ship Code and Naval Submarine Code is the part published by NATO.

Tier 4 is the tier at which standards can be selected as Solutions to meet the Tier 3 Performance Requirements. For the Naval Ship Code there are some ‘Solutions to the Naval Ship Code’ written by INSA which provide a Solution (one way to meet the Code) and these are presented as Part 2. The Code Solutions are not mandatory, Naval Administrations need to choose the mix of Code Solutions/Standards/Rules that suit their Concept of Operations Statement and Design. These detailed standards provide a level of prescription which minimises risk, i.e. risk of failure is greatly reduced once prescriptive criteria or standards are selected. A performance based solution (e.g. first principles calculations, risk assessment techniques, statistical analysis) is likely to be both expensive to apply and defers risk reduction until the full demonstration is complete. As such, performance based solutions should be avoided if possible. The Code Solutions identify activities for verification of those solutions.

It is important that Code Solutions/Standards/Rules which meet the Tier 3 Performance Requirements are selected rather than attempting to verify a ship directly against Tier 3. The Code Solutions have been justified (formally checked) against Tier 3 to ensure that they provide sufficient coverage of the Performance Requirements and this exercise needs to be undertaken for any alternative Standards/Rules which are selected. The Code’s Standards Plan template can be used to capture the Solutions being applied.

The final tier, Tier 5 Justification and Guidance on the Naval Ship/Submarine/Boat Code is only available to INSA members (from Edition H onwards) and contains statements justifying how the Code text for Tier 3 Performance Requirements and Tier 4 Solutions to the Naval Ship Code satisfy the Tier 1 Goal for the chapter, and ultimately the Tier 0 Goal for the Ship/Submarine/Boat. Guidance is also provided for some areas.

INSA and NATO versions of the Codes

INSA develops, discuss is and agrees INSA versions of the Codes, all three parts of which are available to members in the website library after each AGM. NATO and INSA publishing of parts of the Code which are releasable externally is different for each Code and each version.

NATO navies can choose to use any version of the Code they want. There is no need to default to the most recently published NATO version for contracting and certification although some navies may choose to take this approach.

Naval Ship Code

Part 1 of the Naval Ship Code will continue to be sent to NATO for publishing as ANEP-77 at each Edition change (i.e. Edition H Version 1, Edition I Version 1) with the publishing cycle being agreed as three years. In the years that NATO does not publish an updated version, Part 1 is made available to INSA members only.

Part 2 is published outside INSA on the non-members part of the INSA website every time there is an Edition change and NATO have agreed to publish Part 1. In the years that NATO does not publish an updated version, Part 2 is made available to INSA members only.

Part 3 is available to INSA members only and is not publicly published.

Naval Submarine Code

As with the Naval Ship Code, Part 1 of the Naval Submarine Code will continue to be sent to NATO for publishing at each Edition change (i.e. Edition H Version 1, Edition I Version 1). . It is published by NATO as ANEP-102 and like the Naval Ship Code, the publishing cycle is set at three years. In the years that NATO does not publish an updated version, Part 1 is made available to INSA members only.

There is no Part 2 written for the Naval Submarine Code and there is no plan to produce this as INSA nations have their own standards/approach for submarine design and build.

Part 3 is available to INSA members only and is not publicly published.

Naval Boat Code

The least mature of INSA’s Codes, the Naval Boat Code is currently only published by INSA with a decision on submitting for NATO publishing yet to be made. Part 1 is published outside INSA on the non-members part of the INSA website every time there is an Edition or a version change (annually).

There is not yet a Part 2 written for the Naval Boat Code but work is underway to develop this for some boat types.

Part 3 is available to INSA members only and is not publicly published.