Lockheed to Install Compass Systems on UK Navy Ships, Submarines

Lockheed Martin has received an estimated $25 million contract from Britain’s defense ministry to develop and install a new compass system for more than 30 U.K. navy ships and submarines.

Lockheed said Tuesday the Navigation Compass Program‘s goal is to install a new solid-state, sensor-based compass system for the U.K. navy’s Type 23 Frigates, Hunt– and Sandown-class mine countermeasure vessels, Trafalgar– and Vanguard-class submarines and auxiliary vessels.

The company added that the new compasses use of iXBlue‘s MARINS M7 inertial navigation technology and fiber optic gyroscopes to support remote operations by the naval force.

Lockheed will manufacture the compass systems at a facility in Havant in the U.K. and install them onto the vessels, with the first surface ships to be fitted in early 2017 and the submarines later in the year.

British Defense Minister Philip Dunne noted that the contract is part of the country’s defense equipment fund.