Northrop Grumman will produce two navigation suites for the Italian Navy’s second pair of U212A Class submarines under a contract awarded by the Italian shipyard Fincantieri.
The navigation suite comprises the PL41 Mk4 ring laser gyro inertial navigation system and a navigation data controller (NDC).
The PL41 Mk4 onboard modern naval vessel is specifically designed to provide continuous and automatic data outputs of the ship’s heading, attitude and heave, corresponding rates, geographical position and velocity information.
The laser gyro system features inertial sensors, processing electronics, input and output function, power and distribution cable harnesses and supporting electronics packed as a basic unit, along with a remote control and display unit for the operator interface.
The NDC features a dedicated intelligent interface to reduce the master processor workload and significantly increase the data throughput. It serves as a central navigation computer and interface control, monitoring and distribution unit.
