Article content

The National Research Council of Canada will be highlighting at next week’s CANSEC defence trade show some of the technology that it helped develop for the Canadian Forces Included among those are:

New autopilot technology powers modernized submarines

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or National Research Council highlights development of new autopilot for Victoria-class subs Back to video

The Royal Canadian Navy’s four Victoria Class submarines have been equipped with new systems that are essential to their ongoing operation and will include a state-of-the-art autopilot control system designed and developed in Canada. The autopilot system, when engaged, automatically adjusts and compensates for any disturbance that could affect the submarine’s set course through the water, either on the surface or when submerged.

NRC, DND, DRDC Atlantic and Montreal’s L-3 MAPPS, the supplier of control and simulation solutions selected to build the new system, all contributed to the project. A working model submarine 1/15th the size of the actual vessel was constructed and submerged in a massive 200m x 12m x 7m tank—the largest facility of its kind in Canada—at NRC’s facilities in St. John’s, Newfoundland. By testing the model in NRC’s towing tank, the teams were able to collect full-scale baseline data on the existing autopilot systems in order to build the new software.