Sagem's BlueNaute navigation system chosen by US Coast Guard for the Juniper WLB class ships

: Posted On Wednesday, 29 April 2015 10:48

Naval Defense Industry News - USA, France

Sagem's BlueNaute navigation system chosen by US Coast Guard for the Juniper WLB class ships

After issuing an international request for proposals (RFP), the US Coast Guard has chosen Sagem (Safran)'s new attitude and heading reference system, BlueNaute®, to modernize a dozen of its ocean-going ships. About a dozen Juniper WLB class ships will be fitted with the BlueNaute system.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Walnut (WLB-205), a seagoing WLB Juniper class buoy tender based in Honolulu. USCG photo by PA1 John Gaffney. The WLB Juniper class is a 2,000 tons ocean-going ship, specialized in the laying of navigation buoys, the fight against pollution and search missions at sea. The US Coast Guard deploys 16 ships of this type.

Sagem's BlueNaute reference system is based on hemispherical resonator gyros (HRG), a proprietary Sagem technology that gives the BlueNaute very high reliability, coupled with extremely precise measurements. A disruptive navigation technology, the BlueNaute's inertial core offers a competitive advantage in terms of total cost of ownership and performance, versus the previous generation of inertial technologies, especially fiber-optic and mechanical models.

With mean time between failures (MTBF) exceeding 100,000 hours, Sagem's BlueNaute system addresses evolving maritime navigation requirements. Its unexcelled performance qualities make it a perfect match for scientific missions, at-sea searches, offshore operations and coast guard or police missions.

BlueNaute's ergonomic design, performance and longevity were all decisive factors in the system's selection by the US Coast Guard for its WLB ships.