MES Secures Navigation and Communications Contracts for 13 Brazilian Newbuild Drillships

GE Power Conversion’s maritime business has awarded contracts to MES for the supply and installation of turnkey navigation, communication and internal communications packages on board 13 new drillships.

These vessels are in build as part of the current phase of the Brazilian oil and gas field exploration by Brazilian energy corporation Petrobras. The oil and gas giant is searching for hydrocarbons up to 300 kilometers (km) off the coast of Brazil, in rock formations up to 5 km below the seabed and in water depths of up to 2,000 meters. The pre-salt layer holds an estimated 10–16 billion barrels of oil equivalent.


GE provide very large integrated systems to shipbuilders to power, propel, navigate, position and control drillships and also power and control the drilling process itself.

The vessels comprise seven “Espadon 200” drillships to be built by Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS) in Ipojuca, northeast Brazil. MES are providing the full Navigation package which comprises mainly Furuno equipment.

MES has been a navcomms partner to GE on several projects in the past including PSV’s in operation in the Gulf of Mexico and 2 Global 1200 pipelaying vessels. GE utilises the niche expertise of MES to provide a navigation equipment package which integrates into and around GE’s own propulsion and dynamic positioning systems.

Gang of 4 at Babcock Appledore as latest ship for Irish Naval Service nears completion

Commissioning work is ramping up at Babcock's Appledore shipbuilding facility as the LE JAMES JOYCE, the 2nd of 3 OPV's for the Irish Naval Service nears sea trials.  MES has responsibility for the supply and installation of the navigation, military and civil communications, internal communications and the electro-optical fire control system.  In other words MES is providing a complete mission system.  At the time of writing we have 4 MES commissioning technicians on board augmented by specialist engineers for the Raytheon ring laser gyro system and the GE-IP fire control system. Both these companies have provided great support throughout the project as have all our suppliers. And indeed our customers Babcock Marine and the Irish Naval Service are a pleasure to work with. This really has been a team project we have felt proud to be part of and the ships are superb!

ISO9001 - Quality Management Counts!!

Rigid adherence to quality control procedures recently prevented a potentially embarrassing non conformity. Fortunately the incorrectly picked thermal camera was identified by eagle eyed packing staff.

Dan from stores commented, "we realised the dome was out of tolerance when it didn't fit in the recyclable packaging material!"

The MES quality manager is taking the matter up with the HR department to get to the bottom of the mix up.

Contract Awarded for 12 Hovercraft for Indian Coastguard

Marine Electronic Systems (MES) has been awarded a £5M contract for the mission system on 12 Indian Coastguard Hovercraft (via Griffon Hoverwork Limited). The mission system comprises navigation, communications and optical surveillance equipment.

The navigation system comprises a mini integrated bridge system with radar, ECDIS and conning graphics shown on multifunction displays arrayed across the cockpit fascia in a ‘glass bridge’ configuration.  This system has been developed by MES specifically for hovercraft to assist both in the navigation and control of the craft and to provide engine instrumentation and alarms.

A vital part of the surveillance suite is the night vision system which is fully integrated with the navigation system and comprises stabilised, cooled thermal imaging and day/night cameras with powerful zoom capabilities to enable the hovercraft to detect and classify vessels at long range.  Hovercraft can utilise their high speed to cover large sea areas very quickly and therefore are highly effective as patrol vessels.

Griffon Hoverwork won the main contract worth some £34 million to build 12 of the 8000TD medium hovercraft for the Indian Coastguard in October 2010.

The 8000TD is a popular craft for Coastguard operations, as it can be configured to carry passengers, vehicles and equipment for disaster relief or medical evacuation.  At 21.3m in length and with a payload of 8 tonnes, it can reach speeds of 45 knots and is powered by two Iveco diesel engines.