Britain's Ministry of Defense plans to upgrade the communications system used on the Royal Navy's Trafalgar-class submarines.

 

Babcock International, an engineering support services company, said it will design and develop the first stage of an obsolescence update to the Communications Coherency for Submarines system, but did not disclose the value of the MOD contract it received.

 

Babcock had developed the CCSM, which was first installed on T-class submarines in 2005. The system consolidated previously independent autonomous systems into a single commercial off-the-shelf system architecture, covering communications across the frequency spectrum from VLF to EHF. It's now due for upgrade to overcome near-term obsolescence for the final four Trafalgar-class submarines receiving the system.

 

The upgrade will be conducted in two stages: the first involves updating hardware and software for military signal messages; the second involves updating communications equipment routing infrastructure.

 

Acceptance trials for the first stage are scheduled for next January.

 

"Babcock is responsible for CCSM in-service support and is pleased to provide a solution that overcomes the obsolescence issues while minimizing the disruption to the office infrastructure due to the CCSM design," said Babcock Integrated System and Support Group Director Charles John. "Babcock has been delivering communications systems for over 10 years and is highly responsive to customer needs to meet both existing and future requirements."