GE Wins $11-Million Spanish Ship Control System Contract

The General Electric Company, Simulation and Control Systems Department, Daytona Beach, Fla., has been awarded an $ll-million contract to furnish central control systems for four new Spanish Navy ships. The equipment provided under the contract will control the shipboard propulsion, electrical, auxiliary and damage control systems.

The contract was awarded by Empresa Nacional Bazan De Construcciones Navales Militaries of El Ferrol, Spain. In a major effort to update its Naval forces, the Spanish Government has commissioned the El Ferrol Shipyard to build three guided missile frigates (FFG) and one aircraft carrier.

The FFGs are similar to U.S.

Navy FFGs which use General Electric Control Systems. The aircraft carrier, which is designed for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft, is the first ship of its type to use the GE Control Systems.

Commenting on the award, Dr.

Charles E. Cheeseman, manager of General Electric's Digital Control Systems Business in Daytona Beach, said: "This award is the result of many months of work by our GE team with the Spanish Government and representatives of the El Ferrol Shipyard. Our experience and good program performance with similar systems for the U.S. Navy put us in a good position to win this contract.

We will be working closely with the shipyard and will have people on site in Spain as delivery of the hardware starts in 1982." The central control systems will be produced at the Simulation and Control Systems Department in Daytona Beach. The department broke ground on January 18, 1980, for a new 65,000-square-foot; production facility. Current employment is now about 1,300. This contract has been anticipated by the department's current expansion plans and will not require additional employees to complete.

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