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NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2008 17
A lengthy process
“EVERY Wings that comes in here tweaking the designs in response.
and sees the two-island design
One example is within Flyco, where
throws their hands up in horror.
the team created a raised podium at the
But they all walk away happy.”
central position to ensure that eye-lines
So says Steve Dowdell, the mission
down to the deck were uninterrupted.
system director for the future carrier
An additional bridge-wing was
under design by the Carrier Alliance.
another addition that became clear
There are a few conceptual issues for
after some time spent monitoring the
the navy’s air carrier people to come to
use of that space.
terms with.
The team have also spent time
Principal among them the realisation
developing an Air Group Management
that there’s a 20-minute walk between
Application (AGMA). Cdr Petitt said:
the bridge and Flyco, isolated within
“The aim of it is to help the operators
their own individual towers on the
move the aircraft around the deck.
carrier’s expansive flightdeck.
Aircraft carriers currently use sticky
The putative members of the WE
models of the aircraft on a metal ship.
department might also blink in horror
“And it works with eight or nine
at the 1,740km of blown-fibre cabling
aircraft, but when you’re looking at 30
that will support the mission system
plus, it starts to become a much more
embedded within these new carriers.
complex jigsaw. We realised early on
However the engineers of BAE
that in order to reach our sortie rate
Systems Integrated Systems
generation, it was important that they
Technologies (Insyte) insist that their
had some help to do that.
hard work in the planning will win
“AGMA has been tested on HMS
anyone using the mission system
Illustrious where they found it so useful
around.
they wanted to keep it.”
There’ll also be a few raised eyebrows
He added: “We want to keep the
at the METOC’s office: “No longer
sortie rate as lean as possible.
a window either, which I’m slightly
“One area that we’ve learnt a lot from
nervous about. I do like the weathermen
the current carriers is layout. We’ve
to know what’s out there,” remarked
completely rearranged the current
Cdr Simon Petitt, the Naval officer
carriers so that the aircrew just walk
embedded in the team.
through a series of briefings, rather
But he’s reassured by the strength
than having to dot here, there and
of the integrated METOC system which
everywhere as they currently do.
feeds in to the office.
“It sounds like common sense, but
All these elements are only part of
common-sense isn’t all that common.”
the massive mission system which
They make no secret that they’re not
needs to be functioning smoothly for
looking to bring in ground-breaking new
the carrier’s arrival; main components
technology on the future carrier. Steve
include the combat system with radars, Dowdell admits plainly: “A no surprises
air traffic control, navigation and bridge, culture is what we’re aiming for.”
voice, data and video networks in an They want to know that the
information system, and communication technology on board is proven; that the
systems. different systems work with each other;
The mission system team are focused that the people on board will know
on identifying any problems early in the what they need to do.
programme – where changes can be They’re keeping the innovation firmly
made before construction is under way. in their approach, drawing together
To this end they have built scale the disparate strands of technology,
mock-ups of several of the com- vision and people early in the process
partments, watching as real matelots to smooth the arrival of these big, big
run through their everyday jobs, and ships.
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Countering the unpredictable
Lock on to MBDA solutions
: G. Plisson
Photo
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