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The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) has signed a contract with navigation company iXblue for up to 172 FOG-based Quadrans gyrocompasses. Over the course of the next four years, iXblue will contribute towards the upgrade of the Swedish Navy’s fleet of high speed crafts, mainly CB90 combat boats.
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The Quadrans gyrocompass is a solid-state, strap-down system that draws on the company's fibre-optic gyroscope (FOG) technology. One of the first companies worldwide to exploit and market the technology, iXblue said that it provides highly accurate heading and attitude data – even under challenging environments such as GNSS-denied settings.
David Cunningham, iXblue's commercial director, said that the agency was seeking "maintenance-free" gyrocompasses for the retrofit. According to him, the FOG technology offered a viable solution; given it has no moving parts, is relatively compact and lightweight compared with other service models, and operates on low power consumption.
“Another key aspect was the performance delivered by these gyros," added Cunningham. "The CB90 vessels are indeed very fast boats and need the most reliable and accurate heading and attitude data to navigate safely. Our Marins Series Inertial Navigation Systems being already in service on the Gotland Class submarines and Koster Class MCMVs, and our Quadrans gyrocompasses equipping other surface boats in the Swedish Navy fleet, the FMV was familiar with the high performance delivered by our systems and knew the Quadrans met the specific requirements needed for the CB90.”
The Quadrans model is both IMO and IMO-HSC certified, and provides all the necessary data for demanding navigation and control applications at a fast rate and with precise time-stamping.
“We’re very proud of this new mark of confidence in our Quadrans gyrocompasses and FOG technology,” continued Cunningham. “We want to thank the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration for their continued trust and long-standing partnership and look forward to our future collaboration with them.”
