ABSTRACT In the United States, Statute 14 USCG 81 assigns responsibility for aids to navigation to the U. S. Coast Guard. Established aids provide the user with position determination capabilities -- to avoid hazards, reach destinations, or to maintain fixed locations. The marine environment is divided into the high seas, the coastal confluence zone (CCZ), and the harbor and harbor entrance zone. The major unsatisfied area is the CCZ, and the Department of Transportation has recommended that this zone be given priority consideration by providing it an adequate radionavigation aid system. Based on studies, the Commandant of the Coast Guard recommended that LORAN-C be selected as the radionavigation system to be provided the CCZ. After further investigation and consultations with other government agencies and representatives of user organizations, LORAN-C was selected as the government-provided radionavigation system for the CCZ. This decision was publicly announced on 16 May 1974. The Department of Transportation's National Plan for Navigation states, among other items, that the Department of Transportation's National Navigation Policy is to " coordinate planning for facility implementation and deployment in the interest of electromagnetic frequency conservation, overall economies, and avoidance of unnecessary duplication." The knowledge provided in this paper deals with the governments planning concerning an orderly transition from LORAN-A to LORAN-C. RESPONSIBILITIES It has long been public policy to provide navigational aids to reduce maritime stranding and collisions. With the development of aim commerce, this policy has been extended to cover the airways. However, in practically all cases coverage has been local or contiguous to the country operating the aid. In most cases these aids are government operated for all to use. Procedures through which civil navigational aids are provided vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In the United States there is a basic statute assigning responsibility for aids to navigation to the Coast Guard. This statute, 14 USC 81, states in part: "In order to aid navigation and to prevent disasters, collisions and wrecks of vessels and aircraft, the Coast Guard may establish, maintain, and operate, Aids to maritime navigation required to serve the needs of the armed forces or of the commerce of the United States; Electronic aids to navigation systems required to serve the needs of the maritime commerce of the United States, or required to serve the needs of the air commerce of the United States as requested by the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. These aids to navigation, other than electronic aids to navigation systems, shall be established and operated only within the United States, the waters above the Continental Shelf, the territories and possessions of the United States, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the United States at places where naval or military bases of the United States are or may be located."