The US Navy has awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine to provide engineering, technical services and equipment in support of Sperry Marine-manufactured equipment installed on US Navy vessels and at land-based test facilities.

Under the $10.9m contract, the company will provide services including analysis, repair, alteration, maintenance and production improvement on existing Sperry Marine-manufactured integrated bridge systems and steering / ship control systems.

The bridge system integrates the entire ship’s navigation sensors and systems including radars, electronic chart display and information systems, gyrocompass, depth sounder, speed log, differential global positioning satellite (GPS) receivers and autopilot into an unified package.

All sensors on board the ship are linked via the company’s voyage management system software, which also provides route planning, a real-time picture of the ship’s position and movement, and radar targets and automatic identification system data on an electronic chart display and information system.

The work, expected to be complete by March 2011, will be carried out in Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Hawaii and a few other locations.