British and French amphibious assault craft take part in Exercise Corsican Lion.
LR Grey Code to certify small boats in military service launched at DSEI in London
13 September 2017 – Lloyd’s Register (LR) has launched the LR Grey Code for boats under 24m in length today at DSEI at London’s Excel Centre. With a growing awareness for the need to reduce the risks of a boat’s operation for both crew and operator, the new Code is able to provide a level of equivalence to statute required by a navy’s safety management policy.
The Code provides the evidence to the regulators, responsible persons and operators that craft are safe to operate in their roles within defined boundaries. Small boats in military service can be certified under a single Code which reduces complexity and confusion by bringing consistency and simplicity to safety standards, procedures and administration.
LR has been active in developing understanding of how it can support navies around the world to demonstrate safe design and quality manufacture of critical aspects for boats. The shared knowledge and collaboration between the UK Ministry of Defence and LR has been an instrumental factor in developing a proper understanding of the safety goals for small boats. Together, a pragmatic approach has been implemented to certification based on LR’s knowledge of the operators and the defined roles of the boats.
The new Code defines standards to be used but has flexibility to accept alterative equivalent standards recognised by a Naval Administration. It takes a holistic approach to boat safety and is benchmarked against existing commercial and naval regulatory requirements, including SOLAS and UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency standards.
Jim Gorton, LR’s Naval Strategy Manager said: “The introduction of this Code provides a vital safety process that offers assurance for small craft, whilst taking account of the operational imperatives that face operators of military boats.”
