BAE Systems Uses Paramarine to Design Nuclear Subs
Paramarine advanced marine design software by QinetiQ GRC is being used by BAE Systems to design Astute the new class of nuclear submarines for the royal navy. The design and construction of BAE Systems’ Astute Class is an extremely challenging engineering project. Once deployed, Astute is designed to require no refuelling throughout her full service life, in excess of 25 years, and can patrol for 90 days remaining undetected thousands of miles from home and hundreds of metres underwater. It is the largest and most powerful attack submarine ever ordered by the Royal Navy and its stealth, endurance and flexibility give it unparalleled freedom to operate worldwide.
“BAE Systems have been using Paramarine for over ten years for both stability certification and early stage design. Backed by the endorsement of the MoD, Paramarine is our submarine software design tool of choice. Paramarine is easy to use, intuitive, has a good graphical user interface and is extremely flexible and powerful. I think Paramarine is probably the most powerful tool available today for submarine design,” said Rob Ritchie, Engineering Manager - Naval Architecture, BAE Systems - Submarine Solutions.
Paramarine is based on 20 years’ experience in marine design and has a wealth of submarine specific analyses in one integrated product. Confidence in its capabilities comes from the independent validation of results and that it is approved for use by the UK MoD. In addition thousands of concept vessels have been modelled and their stability analysed using the software tool. It is been deployed by many of the world’s leading shipbuilders, as well as some of the world’s leading universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University College London. The recent launch of the latest version of Paramarine (V7) has further extended the software’s functionality with enhancements to its reporting, concurrent design and documentation capabilities.
"We have established a long and successful relationship with BAE systems. Being involved in the design of the Astute class of submarines has enabled us to demonstrate the extensive and powerful capabilities that Paramarine possesses. In addition to BAE’s use of Paramarine we have also been providing support in the delivery of bespoke software applications for their submarine division,” said Vittorio Vagliani, Managing Director, QinetiQ GRC.
