South Korea has ordered its 100th shipborne Sigma 40 inertial navigation system from Sagem (Safran group), confirming its confidence in the system's laser gyro technology.

The Sigma 40 is a high-performance shipborne inertial navigation system. It is available in several different versions to cover operational needs for all types of warships, from corvettes to nuclear submarines.

These units are widely used by the South Korean navy as original equipment or higher-performance retrofits on both surface vessels and submarines, including PKX patrol boats, FFX frigates and U-209 and KSS-1 submarines.

This latest Sigma order consolidates Sagem's leadership with the world's most powerful navies. Part of the ship's combat system, the Sigma 40's high-precision measurements contribute to weapon accuracy and performance.

Sagem's Sigma 40 navigation systems now handle the main navigation function on more than 300 surface vessels (corvettes, frigates, aircraft carriers) and over 50 submarines in 11 different classes, including nuclear (Rubis-Améthyste class), non-nuclear air-independent propulsion (AIP) and conventional propulsion models.

Furthermore, Sagem has signed a contract to supply 80 Vigy Observer optronic systems for an unspecified customer’s new fast interceptor craft. It won the contract against an international field of competitors.

Sagem's Vigy Observer provides full day-night capabilities for all missions assigned to these high-speed boats: protection of ports and coastal infrastructures, maritime police, the fight against terrorism and piracy, immigration control and fishing surveillance.

The Vigy Observer is a panoramic, gyrostabilized multi-sensor observation system. Featuring a compact, modular design, this innovative system incorporates a cooled infrared imager, three daytime color cameras and a laser rangefinder. It is operated from a touch control terminal.

The decisive factors in the customer's selection of the Vigy Observer were its inertial stabilization performance on a light, high-speed boat operating at up to 50 knots, its compact, lightweight design, and easy integration.

Manufactured by Sagem's Dijon plant (France), the Vigy Observer system also fully capitalizes on synergies with the company's plants in Poitiers, for optronics, and Montluçon, for inertial technologies. The first systems in this contract will be delivered in 2012.

Sagem's Vigy Observer is a very cost-effective system, since it incorporates technologies that are already mass-produced and proven in operation, notably the sensors from the company's multifunction optronic sensors, and mechanical components in the gyrostabilized panoramic optronic turrets made for armored fighting vehicles. An uncooled version of Vigy Observer is also proposed by Sagem.

A new-generation system, Vigy Observer was designed to handle emerging asymmetric threats and meet increasing demand from today's navies for ocean protection and projection missions, using fast interception craft or offshore patrol vessels (OPV).