Northrop Grumman to supply Type 45 platform management system

Northrop Grumman has won a $15 million contract to supply six ship sets of machinery control and monitoring systems for the UK's Type 45 destroyers from BAE SYSTEMS, the Type 45 Prime contractor.

The contract includes options for life-cycle support including maintenance, repair, spares management, equipment upgrades and training.

The platform management system is a COTS system that provides machinery control and surveillance for the ship's main engines, auxiliaries and other systems as well as damage surveillance and control functions.

The main function of the PMS is to enable shipboard personnel to acces information on the status of platform systems and to control them safely from a common interface. The open architecture design of the PMS allows critical information to be gathered from the combat system and the integrated communications system and display it on the PMS workstations. The integration of this data provides accurate and consistentinformation across the functional boundaries of the ship.

Marine Systems, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, is working closely with Rockwell Automation to provide the COTS based solutions. " The combination of our experience in marine machinery automation with Rockwell's strength in industrial controls was seen as key in winning the Type 45 competition," said John DeMaso, president Marine Systems.

The PMS contract follows on the award to a team led by Northrop and Rolls Royce for the WR-21 marine gas turbine for the Type 45.

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