When the UK Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers enter service in the next decade they will have benefited from extensive work by BAE Systems to iron out glitches before metal has even been cut.
Integrated System Technologies (Insyte) is the group’s system integration division and is heavily involved in designing and testing for the new 60,000-tonne carriers, whose main offensive firepower will be around 40 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters on each vessel.
Navigational, combat management and air traffic control systems are among the networks Insyte is integrating, says managing director Guy Griffiths.
“That’s all part of the integrated mission system. It’s a hugely complex piece of software and networking.”
Insyte’s Visualisation and Experimentation (V&E) system is being used to reduce risk in the downstream integration process – with a bit of help from a current Royal Navy carrier crew.
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“We persuaded the Navy to bring in the crew of HMS Illustrious. They were just off-mission and were rather unenthusiastic to play games with us,” admits Griffiths.
However, after being introduced to the V&E simulation equipment which gives, for example, views from the bridge of the virtual flight deck, they really started to get into it and make constructive suggestions.
“For example, with the cameras on the flight deck positioned as they are, they were unable to see the full layout of aircraft on the deck. That’s easy to change now. If done far down the road, you would have been looking at changes costing millions,” says Griffiths.
By the time the crew’s two-week stint was finished, “we had a hell of a job kicking them out of the door. They really felt part of the process of designing the ships”.
Source: Flight International
