Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine business unit has been selected to supply new-generation ring laser gyro inertial navigation systems for four Egyptian Navy Romeo-class submarines. This follows similar orders from the Canadian Navy and the US Coast Guard. The new inertial navigation systems will provide high-accuracy position data and precise attitude, velocity and heading inputs for the submarines' navigation and fire-control systems.

Sperry Marine will supply MK39 Mod 3A ring laser gyro systems for each of the four diesel-electric coastal submarines. Deliveries are scheduled to be completed by next fall. The scope of work includes equipment supply, engineering support, installation, commissioning and training.MK39 has high immunity to magnetic fields, provides both high accuracy geographic position information, with or without the GPS, and precise attitude and heading data needed for fire control stabilization and weapons initialization. It occupies 36% less deck space than previous Sperry models and is certified for submarine applications due to its extremely low noise signature. Some other important features are MTBF in excess of 200,000 hours and MTTR of 30 minutes or less.