These Rules apply to ship operation installations and auxiliary systems of seagoing surface ships and craft intended for naval activities, which are not part of the direct propulsion system.

Apart from machinery, equipment and auxiliary systems detailed below, these Rules are also individually applicable to other systems and equipment where this is necessary for the safety of the ship and its crew.

Designs which deviate from these Rules may be approved, provided that such designs have been examined by GL for suitability and recognized as equivalent.

Installations and systems which have been developed on novel principles and/or which have not yet been sufficiently tested in shipboard service require special GL approval.

Such machinery may be marked by the Class Notation EXP affixed to the Character of Classification and be subjected to intensified survey, if sufficiently reliable proof cannot be provided of its suitability and equivalence in accordance with 1.3.

In such cases GL is entitled to require additional documentation to be submitted and special trials to be carried out.