The system, currently deployed on HMAS Kuttabul in Garden Island Dockyard, Woolloomooloo Bay, allows specific personnel to be alerted to events in real time by sending messages to mobile devices such as phones or PDAs. The responses are authenticated and audited to reduce alert transmission and collating resources.

This system, dubbed CLEW (Closed Loop Environment for Wireless) was implemented by Alacrity Technologies to rapidly notify specific groups of personnel. The system can also be tweaked to report when a minimum number of personnel have boarded to respond quickly to urgent situations.

Kuttabul employs over 2100 active officers and sailors and attends to 10 major ships with over 50 individual operating units. Brett Chandler, Commander of Kuttabul, said the application of the new technology within the Emergency Management Structure enables personnel to be contacted and recalled more efficiently than using traditional methods.

In November 2005 Alacrity implemented phase one of the emergency communications - an SMS-based solution. Phase 2, completed in December involved the full transition to the wireless platform, CLEW.

The service goes live Tuesday.