New communications service for the Royal Navy
Client name: Royal Navy
The client
Involved in operations and exercises throughout the world, the Royal Navy is constantly at work defending the United Kingdom's interests. As part of this, it employs a fleet of fifteen submarines based in Scotland and Plymouth. In order to keep its equipment as up to date as possible the Navy works with the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), a part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), which obtains new equipment and services for the Armed Forces. With an annual budget of £6 billion, the DPA is the single biggest purchaser of manufactured goods in the UK. At any one time, its 4,300 staff are managing more than 13,000 contracts.
The business challenge
Most recently, the Navy has worked with the DPA to procure an innovative Private Finance Initiative (PFI) solution as part of a new submarine fleet communication service.
The Navy, together with the DPA, was looking for a supplier that would manage the risk of procurement by providing an end-to-end service from initial design to implementation and could provide a solution to significantly improve communications operations, including a new generation of receiver with the following features:
- A complex signal processing system which would perform optimally even with high levels of noise interference.
- Analogue performance to meet demanding requirements on sensitivity and range.
- The ability to withstand a wide range of harsh environmental conditions, including high temperatures, a water-tightness test equivalent to putting the unit under a power shower, resistance to acid mist, airborne dust contaminants, and extreme shock and vibration.
- High reliability, including rapid fault-finding and maintenance systems to meet strict service targets.
- Responsibility for overall installation of the solution on the boats.
- Integration with large amounts of existing on-board equipment.
- Value for money both in terms of procurement and through-life costs.
With this in mind, a consortium put together by VT Communications - with Detica acting as a principal subcontractor - was selected to deliver an innovative and long-term value for money system.
The Detica solution
Starting in 2000, Detica worked within the consortium to provide new radio receivers, which would work as part of the encrypted communications network across the Royal Navy's submarine fleet. This included building from scratch a solution that combined electronics, bespoke digital signal processing hardware and highly complex software.
In addition, Detica designed and built a chassis as part of the radio receivers implementation, which had to meet with strict environmental requirements. This involved working closely with partners to provide expertise in metalwork design and fabrication.
Using leading-edge signal processing technology, the new digital receivers enable the submarines to remain underwater while receiving messages, even when thousands of miles from home. They offer vastly improved reception capabilities for secure communications, and are delivered by units that are smaller and lighter than their predecessors.
In order to deliver the required levels of performance and functionality, Detica also built two testing environments. Firstly, to help with the initial development it assembled a 'test-bed' to allow it to run a wide range of noise and interference scenarios and to test the unit with data recorded during live trials. At the production stage, in order to make sure the solution would interface with the existing technology, the consultancy also constructed a 'test harness' that simulated the system already in place and proved the integration capabilities of the new system.
Outcome and benefits
The new digital receivers have improved the Royal Navy's capacity to receive a signal even against background clutter and internal interference. They are smaller and lighter than their predecessors, so take up less space in an already crowded submarine environment. Significantly, they are able to operate at a cooler temperature whilst using much less power than the former model. In essence, they provide the Royal Navy with a more modern, effective and efficient communications system.
In fact, the system implementation was seen as such a success, that the PFI contract was awarded the prestigious accolade for the "Most Innovative PFI Project £10m+" at the UK PFI Awards 2001.
The future
The receivers have proven to provide such vastly improved reception capabilities that, as a result, Detica has recently supplied thirteen radio receivers to the Swedish Navy.
What the main contractor said
Kevin Cawood of VT Communications said: "Detica was an obvious choice for the consortia as it has more than thirty years of combined experience working with the MOD - most recently on projects such as Soothsayer, where it supplied a state of the art electronic warfare system to the land-based armed forces. Not only is the consultancy a highly respected contractor, it also has the technical expertise needed to deliver such complex and specific systems."
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