150 jobs safeguarded as Devon firm lands £135m MOD contract
A Devon company has landed a £135m Ministry of Defence contract which will safeguard around 150 jobs.
SEA (Systems Engineering and Assessment), a Cohort company, has been awarded the contract to provide a Trainable Decoy Launcher to improve Royal Navy surface Ship defensive capabilities.
Ancilia, SEA’s highly modular and flexible maritime countermeasures solution, has been chosen by the UK’s Ministry of Defence to provide electronic warfare countermeasures.
Ancilia offers effective and rapid protection against modern anti-ship threats, as well as other sophisticated systems and tactics.
It will be installed across a range of the Royal Navy’s surface ships. Its design builds on SEA’s knowledge of existing systems in service with the Royal Navy.
A step-change in decoy launcher technology from traditional fixed solutions, Ancilia’s trainable nature removes the need to manoeuvre the vessel to counter incoming threats. Its relatively small size and weight enables rapid installation on a wide range of maritime platforms, and it has the capability to configure the firing of multiple decoy types in varying positions, providing the Royal Navy with a truly flexible countermeasures solution.
Ancilia is a low-risk solution that will be delivered by a proven team from established UK facilities and has been designed in-part based on existing systems in service with the Royal Navy to minimise integration complexity.
Alongside systems and software integration work, SEA will manufacture and export Ancilia from facilities in North De while, creating and safeguarding over 150 highly skilled jobs.
SEA sees a promising range of export opportunities for Ancilia, and success in these could contribute further to regional prosperity and employment.
Richard Flitton, managing firector of SEA said: “Being awarded a contract of this nature demonstrates the Royal Navy’s trust in SEA which is based on our proven track record of delivering, upgrading, and sustaining high-end maritime capabilities over many years. The knowledge and maritime domain expertise within our UK-based team has enabled our long-standing partnership with the Royal Navy, and we’re delighted that this will allow us to support the UK’s defensive capabilities against modern and complex naval threats.”
Chess Dynamics designs and develops systems that require precision movement in complex environments and provided the trainable base for SEA’s Ancilia.
David Tuddenham, managing director at Chess Dynamics, said: “We are delighted to have contributed our systems expertise to this innovative solution that will help to protect the UK. We have a proven track record of in designing high-precision positioning platforms that support forward thinking solutions such as Ancilia and it’s fantastic to have collaborated on this project with fellow Cohort company SEA.”
