Northrop Grumman Supplies Navigation Systems for New Cruise Ship

Royal Caribbean International's newest cruise ship Brilliance of the Seas, which completed its maiden voyage this summer, is equipped with twin state-of-the-art integrated bridge systems supplied by Northrop Grumman Corporation's Sperry Marine business unit. The Sperry Marine system provides the highest level of safe and accurate navigation for the giant cruise ship, which carries up to 2,500 passengers. In accordance with Royal Caribbean's two-bridge concept, Brilliance of the Seas has been fitted with a totally redundant package consisting of two independent integrated bridge systems (IBS) with all critical components duplicated. The scope of equipment includes interswitched BridgeMaster E S-band and X-band radars, docking radar, Voyage Management System (VMS) with DNV type-approved ECDIS, docking system, weather station, doppler speed logs, fiber optic gyrocompass, adaptive autopilot, weather routing software, a complete GMDSS-compliant communications system, Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) and Automatic Identification System (AIS). Sperry Marine also provided extensive applications engineering, installation, commissioning, spares, technical support and crew training. Sperry Marine is supplying integrated bridge systems for all Royal Caribbean new cruise ships and has completed a retrofit program to upgrade the IBS on all ships in the existing Royal Caribbean fleet. The 293.2m Brilliance of the Seas was built at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. It is the second ship in the Vantage-class series. The ship entered commercial service in July, and is currently providing two-week cruises in the North Sea operating from Harwich, on the east coast of England. Sperry Marine, with worldwide headquarters in Charlottesville, Va., is part of Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector. The business unit provides smart navigation and ship control solutions for the international marine industry under the Sperry Marine, Decca and C. Plath brand names, 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.