The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is testing a maritime safety system for automatic vessel monitoring and emergency alert at sea using the Iridium satellite network.

“The Iridium-based vessel tracking system will permit the lifeboat crew to concentrate on the task at hand, safely operating the boat under difficult weather and sea conditions without making continual position reports by voice calls over radio channels,” Mark Morgan, radiocommunications project officer at RNLI, said in a statement. “With this system, we will be able to monitor the lifeboats at all times from shoreside headquarters, providing enhanced levels of safety and operational efficiency in our lifesavings operations.”

The RNLI, is conducting the sea trials in partnership with McMurdo Ltd. and Active Web Solutions. If further tests are successful, the system will be installed in RNLI’s fleet of 128 all-weather lifeboats and 208 inshore lifeboats, which are located around the coast of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Channel Islands.