Paramarine advanced marine design software, developed by QinetiQ GRC, is being used by BAE Systems' Maritime - Naval Ships business, in the assessment phase for the design of the latest Royal Navy frigates.

Paramarine is being used for early stage design and structural development of the Type 26 Global Combat Ship (T26 GCS). The T26 GCS is a globally deployable and sustainable warship that will form the spine of the Royal Navy's future fleet.

BAE Systems' Maritime - Naval Ships business, specialises in naval ship design, build and combat systems capability delivering maritime capability to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and other navies around the globe.

Its experience in military naval design, construction and delivery of complex whole ship, design, build and integration encompasses the entire spectrum of military vessels. Through a 15-year Terms of Business Agreement with the UK MoD, it is providing the backbone of the UK Royal Navy's surface fleet for the next 30 years and beyond.

"We are charged with developing a design that generates the most effective balance of cost vs. benefit. We develop different configurations to assess the impact on the cost of building the ship. Paramarine enables us to develop and test scores of options in the early design stage and at the same time we are able to very rapidly gain a powerful insight into the impact of structural changes to aid the decision making process.

"Paramarine is a powerful and effective ship design solution which is very flexible, supported by a responsive and highly knowledgeable customer support team," observed Chris Muskett, Engineering Manager Hull and Structure, BAE Systems' Maritime - Naval Ships.

Paramarine has been and is used extensively across BAE Systems on projects such as the Astute class of submarines, Type 45 Royal Navy ships, and the new aircraft carrier programmes. Approved by the MoD as its stability software of choice, BAE Systems has extensive experience and understanding of Paramarine's capabilities. Paramarine is based on over 20 years' experience in advanced marine design.

Thousands of concept vessels have been modelled and their stability analysed using Paramarine. It is used by many of the world's leading shipbuilders, as well as many of the world's leading universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University College London.

"BAE Systems use Paramarine on a wide range of projects for both surface vessels and submarines. We are delighted to continue providing BAE Systems with the ability to perform cost versus capability studies efficiently to inform their bidding cycle.

BAE Systems provide us with very valuable feedback which we keep incorporating into the product to continuously provide a more effective tool" said Vittorio Vagliani, Managing Director, QinetiQ GRC.