Northrop Grumman Supplies Electronic Navigation and Communication System for One of the World's Largest Cruise Ships
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., June 5, 2006 -- Freedom of the Seas - Royal Caribbean's newest and biggest passenger cruise ship, which enters regular service this month - has been equipped with an advanced, state-of-the-art suite of navigation and communication electronics by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC).
At 160,000 gross tons and carrying more than 3,600 passengers and 1,400 crew, Freedom of the Seas is one of the largest cruise ships in the world. The ship was constructed at Aker Finyards in Turku, Finland, where two additional Freedom-class ships are also being built.
Northrop Grumman's Sperry Marine business unit supplied a comprehensive array of bridge electronics for the giant cruise ship, with multiple levels of back-up systems and redundancy of all critical components to ensure safety at sea. The integrated bridge system (IBS) layout is similar to that on other Royal Caribbean ships, with displays and consoles arranged in a U-shaped configuration for easy control from trackball devices built into the armrests of the watch officers' chairs.
The bridge systems include multiple navigation radars, adaptive self-tuning autopilot, a fiber-optic gyro heading reference system, Doppler speed logs and electronic chart display and information system running on Sperry Marine's proprietary Voyage Management System software, as well as a full array of communication equipment meeting international requirements.
Sperry Marine is under contract to supply the IBSs for the next two Freedom-class ships and has supplied the same equipment for all of the new Royal Caribbean Voyager-, Radiance- and Vision-class ships, ensuring that all of the vessels have standardized equipment and operating procedures. Sperry Marine also provides extensive navigation training for the ships' watch officers and fleet-wide service and technical support under a comprehensive service agreement with Royal Caribbean.
Sperry Marine, headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., and with major engineering and support offices in New Malden, United Kingdom and Hamburg, Germany, provides smart navigation and ship control solutions for the international marine industry with customer service and support through offices in 16 countries, sales representatives in 47 countries and authorized service depots in more than 250 locations worldwide.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense company headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif. Northrop Grumman provides technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in systems integration, defense electronics, information technology, advanced aircraft, shipbuilding and space technology. With approximately 125,000 employees and operations in all 50 states and 25 countries, Northrop Grumman serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers.
For commercial sales inquiries, contact Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine by phone, +1 (434) 974-2656 or by e-mail, sales_commercial@sperry.ngc.com
For military sales inquiries, call +1 (434) 974-2134 or e-mail sales_military@sperry.ngc.com
Visit our Web site at www.sperrymarine.northropgrumman.com
CONTACT:
Jim Rhodes
Rhodes Communications
+1 (757) 451-0602
jrhodes@rhodescomm.com
Debbi McCallam
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems
+1 (410) 765-1521
d.mccallam@ngc.com
