Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] Sperry Marine British business unit was recently selected to supply the Platform Management System (PMS) for the next Royal Navy Astute-class submarine, HMS Audacious, the company reported.
PMS will control and monitor platform machinery and on board systems, according to Northrop Grumman.
BAE Systems is the prime contractor on the British submarine effort.
Northrop Grumman beat out two other companies for the contract, Stuart Colvin, Head of Supply Chain for the Complex Systems for the Astute class, told sister publication Defense Daily.
“The whole activity took approximately two years to complete with the culmination being a Best and Final Offer round (BAFO) in January 2008,” he said.
Six companies originally bid on the program at the pre-qualification phase. Five companies were eventually asked to respond to the request for bid, Colvin added.
Three companies were then asked to respond to the BAFO and on the basis of their responses to the key assessment criteria–technical compliance, acquisition costs, cost of ownership, safety issues and schedule conformance–Sperry Marine (UK) was recommended to the Ministry of Defense, Colvin said.
“The basis of the required design is that both the hardware and software should be commercial off the shelf items which the Sperry design complied fully with,” he added.