Royal Navy Selects iXBlue's Inertial Technology For Surface Ships, Subs

iXBlue has won a contract to provide 70 MARINS M7 to equip 35 Royal Navy major surface ships and submarines, as part of the Navigation Compass Programme (NCP).

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 Defense toward the adoption of iXBlue Fiber Optic Gyroscope (FOG) technology. With a 5-year contract awarded to Lockheed Martin UK, iXBlue's strategic partner, the UK MoD definitively embraces iXBlue’s unrivalled inertial 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. They offer outstanding performances and unprecedented reliability to meet the requirements of the most demanding navies. MARINS M7 model is the best available INS on the market, offering a drift of less than 1 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.