Obsolescence Management News

Classification society Bureau Veritas (BV) informs it has extended the range of reliability solutions it provides for the global offshore industry through a partnership with aerospace risk management firm APSYS. Under the agreement, APSYS will adapt best aerospace practices and tools to the offshore oil and gas industry and BV will implement APSYS solutions to assist clients in building robust and safe installations while optimizing design and operating costs. Matthieu de Tugny, Senior Vice-President and head of Offshore, Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore Division, said, “Everything we do today for our clients in offshore energy has to be focused on reducing costs and operating downtime while improving efficiency and safety.

GE pioneers a friendlier operating system for mariners. GE’s Power Conversion business is bringing enhanced operability to the company’s Dynamic Positioning (DP) system. According to GE, the latest version is more energy efficient, better integrated and more mariner friendly. Defining that concept further, Paul English, marine leader of GE Power Conversion, told MarineNews in May, “We are giving ship control back to the mariners.” GE leverages more than 40 years of experience in its effort to reduce the burden of the technology on the operator. It’s a new direction in DP. It’s the mariner’s DP. GE’s latest DP offering is mariner-focused, enhancing situational awareness and rebalancing attention from system management to true seamanship.

Minister for Defense Stephen Smith and Minister for Defense Materiel Mike Kelly today announced further significant initiatives to both maintain the capability of Australia’s Collins Class submarine fleet and further improve Collins Class maintenance, sustainment and availability. The Collins Class submarine fleet of six submarines is an essential part of Australia’s national security capability. The first Collins Class submarine, HMAS Collins, was commissioned in July 1996. The sixth and last of the Collins Class, HMAS Rankin, was commissioned in March 2003. The Collins Class was designed with a theoretical platform life of 28 years, which provides for an on paper indicative service life for the fleet of 2024 to 2031.

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has been selected to supply the Platform Management System (PMS) for the Royal Navy's fifth Astute-class submarine, Anson. Northrop Grumman's Sperry Marine business unit will supply the PMS for Astute Boat 5 under a performance partnering arrangement (PPA) with BAE Systems Maritime-Submarine. BAE Systems will install the PMS equipment, which controls and monitors the submarine's platform machinery and onboard systems, at its shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, U.K. The contract also includes software, safety case, equipment and obsolescence management. The Astute-class is the Royal Navy's latest series of nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarines. Northrop Grumman's Sperry Marine business unit previously supplied the PMS for Astute Boat 4, Audacious.

Raytheon Systems Limited, Harlow together with Raytheon Anschütz has been awarded the contract for the In-Service Support (ISS) of the Integrated Bridge and Navigation Systems for the Royal Navy’s new Type 45 Daring class destroyers . Raytheon Anschütz will be responsible for total maintenance and repair of these systems on board the vessels until at least 2016. The Type 45 destroyers are being built by the British company BVT Surface Fleet, who also selected Raytheon for In-Service Support. The contract guarantees the Royal Navy a maximum uptime of their new ships at predictable operation costs, depending on performance-based payments and a volume control for ship usage.

Raytheon Anschütz has been rewarded a contract to deliver navigation and control systems for six submarines of type U214. The second batch of U214 submarines for the Republic of Korea Navy will be built under responsibility of ThyssenKrupp Marine System’s shipyard HDW at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea. On February 20 Raytheon Anschütz has signed a contract to supply a comprehensive package of navigation and control systems for the submarines. The scope of supply covers navigational data management…