The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded a five year contract to BAE Systems to provide its Support Information Knowledge Management (S-IKM) data management system to improve support across multiple ships in the fleet, thereby improving availability. These include the QEC aircraft carriers, T45 destroyers and the new T26 frigates.
“We [BAE Systems] are proud to have won this highly competitive contract and to build on our support to the Royal Navy. As well as our digital solution, which will now support warships in the UK, we have another digital product based on similar principles which we’re already delivering to the Royal Canadian Navy, supporting the Halifax Class of frigates. Our digital capabilities are defining a new era of cutting-edge resilient data tools which can service complex international defence requirements.”
Graham Farnell, Engineering & Digital Services Director, BAE Systems Maritime Services
S-IKM is designed to manage the vast quantities of data needed to support and maintain complex warships, and to provide faster and more cost-effective support, using data analytics to inform through-life support and improve ship availability.
“We are delighted that ShareAspace plays a significant part in the S-IKM tool. ShareAspace is already in use for the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers and will now be used for other classes as well as part of S-IKM. Eurostep looks forward to continuing to work with BAE Systems Maritime Services in support of both the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy.”
Simon Pettersson, Director of the Defence Industry Vertical, Eurostep
Collaborating across the industry, BAE Systems developed S-IKM by identifying and integrating specialist technologies from other expert suppliers such as Eurostep’s ShareAspace product lifecycle management (PLM) collaboration software.