Germany-based defense contractor Hensoldt announced that its U.K. unit has booked task orders to provide sensors for three new Fleet Solid Support ships that the Team Resolute consortium is building for the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The Navantia UK-led consortium is developing the vessels under a $2 billion contract disclosed in January.
Hensoldt UK will equip the new FSS ships with Quadome 3D Air and Surface Surveillance radars and Kelvin Hughes Integrated Navigation Bridge Systems featuring multifunction displays. It will also invest over $1.2 billion to create Quadome test and support facilities at its Enfield factory.
Quadome is designed to detect small targets and mission systems interaction with a Hensoldt sensor already installed in current RFA and Royal Navy vessels. Meanwhile, the company’s INBS is customizable for specific mission needs, with versions of the systems’ radars already operating in some RFA vessels, including fuel tankers.
Peter Dillon, Hensoldt UK managing director, said the company’s Enfield support facility will use the U.K. supply chain and create local employment opportunities.
“We are proud to be working with Navantia UK to deliver this world-class capability to the RFA, and by extension the RN,” he added.
“This signals Hensoldt’s entry into the U.K.’s naval air surveillance market and reaffirms our position as an Integrated Bridge Systems provider to the fleet.”
Under Team Resolute, Navantia UK, a unit of Spain’s state-owned shipbuilder Navantia, has assembled U.K.-based naval architecture and marine engineering firm BMT and Belfast dry docks operator Harland & Wolff. In October, the group held two events to encourage UK businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to participate in the FSS shipbuilding program.