LONDON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Babcock is to deliver four Phalanx 1B kit modifications and conduct two conversions of the land Phalanx Weapons System to its original marinized configuration.
The work comes under a contract to the U.K. company from Britain's Ministry of Defense. The value of the work, however, was not disclosed.
The Phalanx is a close-in, computer-controlled weapon system of 20mm Gatling guns to defend a ship against missile attack. The guns fire 4,500 rounds per minute.
The 1B configuration allows for its use against small surface vessels and for crew to visually identify and target threats. It also features forward looking infra-red camera technology to defend the ship against surface targets and slow air targets.
Raytheon is the manufacturer of the system, which is used on U.S. and Royal Navy ships. Babcock is the in-service support provider in Britain for the system.
Under the new award -- delivered under an amendment to the existing support and upgrade contract -- Babcock will obtain Phalanx 1B systems equipment from Raytheon and covert the two land-based Phalanx weapon systems using their own weapons support engineers.
The systems are due to be delivered by March 2014.
"We are delighted to be applying our expertise and working with Raytheon to help the MOD and Royal Navy build the Phalanx ... capability it needs," said Babcock Weapons Business Development Manager Martin Laity. "Babcock is already known for our weapon support work for the UK MOD and our expertise in the assembly, test and setting to work of naval weapon systems.
