Babcock completes Estonian vessel upgrade
Babcock has successfully completed a capability upgrade on the first of three Estonian Navy minehunter vessels at its Rosyth facilities in Fife, Scotland, the company announced on 31 January.
The Sandown-class EML Admiral Cowan minehunter vessel underwent a five month docking period at the shipyard between July and December 2018. The vessel will now return to Estonia before undergoing trials in the North Sea in May to demonstrate its full operational capability.
The installation of an upgraded mission package on the minehunter was carried out under a contract awarded by Thales UK. The mission package included fitting Thales' Sonar 2193, an upgraded navigation system, as well as the Thales M-CUBE C2 system along with several other upgrades.
The second Estonian Navy minehunter vessel, EML Sakala, arrived at the Babcock Rosyth site in December 2018 to undergo the same package of work. This will be followed by EML Ugandi in late spring 2019.
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