Three-dimensional navigation

In the United States Navy, navigation is undergoing a paradigm shift. "Changing the way a vessel navigates involves issues that are just as much cultural as technical - much like going from sail to steam during the last century". This paradigm shift is a transition from paper charts and manual navigation methods to networked electronic multi-dimensional charting. Centuries-old methods of navigation, that primarily document a vessel\´s track history, will succumb to the elimination of paper charts, manning piloting teams, and applying pencil fixes are faced with replacing all the hard-learned lessons with bytes within a computer and pixels on a screen. The Navy\´s future embraces digital charts, automatic fixes, and precision electronic navigation. This paper describes some challenges involved in the transition to using new standards that are emerging with the Electronic Chart Display and Information system-Navy (ECDIS-N) and discusses a possible next step in the process by going beyond two-dimensional electronic navigation.