Royal Navy adopts iXBlue's inertial technology
The Royal Navy has selected iXBlue's high-grade MARINS M7 to upgrade the navigation systems of 35 major surface vessels and submarines through the award of a five year contract to Lockheed Martin UK (iXBlue's strategic partner) by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Above:
iXBlue MARINS M7 Inertial Navigation System.
Courtesy PRNewsFoto/iXBlue
Through Lockheed Martin UK, iXBlue is providing 70 MARINS M7 to equip 35 Royal Navy major surface ships and submarines, as part of the Navigation Compass Programme.
The decisions to equip both the Queen Elizabeth-Class Aircraft Carriers and the fourth Astute-Class nuclear-power submarine with iXBlue's MARINS Inertial Navigation System (INS) were the first steps made by the UK Ministry of Defence toward the adoption of iXBlue Fiber Optic Gyroscope technology.
The 70 MARINS M7 INS will replace the obsolete gyro systems on board the Royal Navy ships which include Type 23 Frigates, Hunt and Sandown Class mine countermeasure vessels and submarines. They will be integrated by Lockheed Martin UK within the compass system installed on board.
Robert Kramer, Vice-President of Lockheed Martin UK - Integrated Systems, declared: "We conducted a detailed assessment of all available possible partners along with their proposed technologies. By precisely understanding the Royal Navy expectations and assessing their views on the industry leading suppliers, it clearly appeared that iXBlue's solutions best fitted the needs in terms of performance, capability and cost."
The MARINS family of military-grade FOG INS (M3, M5 and M7 models) are the latest additions to iXBlue range of naval products. MARINS M7 model offers a drift of less than one Nm in 72 hours of surface GNSS-denied or submarine dived navigation.
"We are very grateful to the Royal Navy for such a decision that demonstrates through a fair and open competition iXBlue's INS excellence in terms of performance, reliability, lifecycle costs and versatility. This success relies on iXBlue core values: innovation, excellence and a strong commitment to the user" said Olivier Cervantes, iXBlue Vice President for Sales and Marketing.