Increasing use of AIS has led to significant overload of the AIS channels. With the emerging high data volume, VDES is introduced to mitigate this problem. It can provide higher data rate (up to 32x) to meet future challenging requirement for data exchange and new application. In this paper, we present the design and development of a shipborne VDES communication system prototype, incorporating the AIS/ASM and VDE in a single module for proof-of-concept and test bedding in Singapore.