The technology multinational GMV has signed a contract with the Spanish corporation Navantia for development and supply of the SENDA navigation system for the future F-110 frigates. This contract bears out the trust already placed in GMV by the Spanish Ministry of Defense (MoD) on the strength of the fine work carried out in the development of a system prototype within the F-110 definition phase.

The future F-110 frigates, which will replace the current Santa María class frigates as from 2026, represent a technological leap forward in platform systems and their combat system, incorporating Industry 4.0 technologies into their design to improve lifecycle-long system management. The SENDA navigation system, for its part, is GMVs’ advanced naval navigation and timing solution. It provides positioning, speed, attitude and timing data in various formats, offering an all-in timing and navigation system.

The various F-110 systems call for a continuous, precise and trustworthy positioning, speed and attitude source. With this purpose in mind, SENDA incorporates multi-constellation (GPS, Galileo) satellite navigation technology compatible with both civil and military signals, plus DGNSS corrections. SENDA also hybrids own satellite navigation data (GNSS) with data received from external sensors, such as inertial navigation systems (INS), pitometer logs, etc., and includes state-of-the-art algorithms to provide robust navigation in contested GNSS scenarios.

SENDA also includes a timing server that generates highly precise and stable timing signals, allowing the ship’s systems to synchronize with GPS time. SENDA guarantees timing reference stability and negligible drift, even during prolonged periods of GPS downtime.

SENDA is a totally redundant system with two complete functional subsystems working in active-active configuration, together with redundant GNSS signal distribution. Both systems, monitored in real time, exchange information to provide the overall system with the best possible solution.

The complete SENDA system, taken together with GMV’s range of defense products, makes GMV a national navigation-system benchmark, with tried and tested experience in the aeronautics, land and naval sectors in platforms like the unmanned aircraft ATLANTE, the 8x8 Dragon vehicle and now the F-110 frigates.