The AIS stations are expected to improve the Maritime Safety Agency's visibility over the thousands of vessels transiting the country's extensive rivers and canals, by capturing each vessel's name and description, as well as its position, speed, heading and other data for display at vessel traffic monitoring stations.
Under the contract, Saab will supply about 150 AIS base stations and more than 50 system servers along the historic Beijing-Hangzhou Canal (also known as the Grand Canal of China), as well as the Heilongjiang, Songhua, tributaries of the Yangtze, Pearl and Huaihe River systems. Saab earlier supplied the AIS network covering China's coastal waters.
It is estimated that China has a total fleet of more than 200,000 inland vessels in operation. The Grand Canal of China is the world's oldest and longest man-made waterway, far surpassing the Suez and Panama canals. It comprises 1,795 kilometers (1,114 miles) with 24 locks and about 60 bridges. The canal was first constructed between 486 B.C. and 610 A.D.
