BAE Systems: 5-Year Royal Navy Contract

BAE Systems won a five year contract to provide information services vital to the successful operation of the entire surface fleet for the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary in Portsmouth.

The Configuration Accounting Service involves the management of a huge central information system, known as the Surface Ship Definition Database, which contains over five million records relating to Royal Navy ships. 

The company’s engineers work to ensure all data, including technical documents, design change guidance and spares lists for each ship, are accurate, up to date and easily accessible. Crucially, this information is required to coordinate all maintenance, repairs and upgrades to the fleet effectively.

Ian Booth, Managing Director, Support at BAE Systems’ Surface Ships business, said: “Rapid and accurate data exchange helps us to meet the demand for increased efficiencies and cost savings in delivering support to the Royal Navy’s surface fleet in the current challenging environment. Our engineers maintain the system, bringing together and storing data in one place, ensuring that the Royal Navy can access information at the right time, helping to speed up the process for repairs and upgrades and better support each ship’s individual requirements.”

The team also works to capture technical data from new ships under construction, such as the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers and Type 45 destroyers, feeding this into the central information system. This is a key element of knowledge sharing through the lifecycle of a ship, helping to ensure BAE Systems engineers can provide effective in service support to these ships as they become operational with the Royal Navy.  

The Configuration Accounting Service is part of the company’s Master Record Data Centre based at the business’ facility at Portsmouth Naval Base. The contract will come into effect in December 2011 and follows on from a previous agreement which has seen the company deliver similar services to the Royal Navy over the past 17 years, ensuring that consistency of the system is maintained.