Northrop Grumman To Supply Platform Management System For Type 45 Destroyers

Northrop Grumman Corporation has won a $15 million contract to supply six ship sets of machinery control and monitoring systems for the U.K.'s Type 45 "D" Class destroyer for the Royal Navy.

The contract, awarded by BAE SYSTEMS Electronics, the Type 45 prime contractor, calls for Northrop Grumman to develop and deliver six platform management systems (PMS) for the Type 45 ships. The contract also includes options for life-cycle support, including maintenance, repair, spares management, equipment upgrades and training.

The PMS is a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) system that provides machinery control and surveillance for the ships' main engines, auxiliaries and other systems, as well as damage surveillance and control functions.

The primary function of the PMS is to enable shipboard personnel to access vital information on the status of platform systems and to safely control them from a common interface. The open architecture design of the PMS allows critical information to be gathered from the combat system as well as the integrated communications system and display it on the PMS workstations. The integration of this data provides accurate and consistent information across the functional boundaries of the ship, a capability that is vital to the crew of a modern warship.