Ship Security Alert System (SSAS)


SSAS enables a threatened ship’s crew to silently request onshore assistance by using a hidden button to transmit an alert.

How It Works

Once activated, the SSAS alert continuously transmits to designated recipients unless it is reset or deactivated.

Depending on the ship’s flag state requirements, alert recipients are generally one or more of the following:

  • The ship owner
  • SSAS management third party
  • The ship’s flag state

Onshore recipients are obliged to inform national authorities or the coastal states where the ship is sailing — dispatching appropriate military and/or law enforcement agencies to resolve the ship’s security situation.

SSAS Regulatory Compliance Requirements

  • All passenger ships, all sizes
  • Oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers, other cargo ships and mobile offshore drilling units: constructed after 1st July 2004 and 500 gross tonnage and up

Per the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention