Collins class submarine HMAS Waller. (Defence)

Leonardo has been awarded a contract by Defence to deliver information management software for the Royal Australian Navy’s Collins class submarines.

The contract, which is referred to as Submarine Communication Information Exchange Management (SCIEM), is part of the SEA 1439 Phase 5B.2 upgrade project, the company stated.

Leonardo stated that it will be providing its Smart Information Dissemination & Management Services (SmartIDMS) software application, which is designed and manufactured in the UK, and will allow RAN crews to upload and download data in a sophisticated and managed way when a submarine connects to a network.

SmartIDMS provides significant improvements in the capabilities of any communications network. The most obvious for submarines, the company stated, are the effective management of information dissemination and bandwidth optimisation, resulting in typical time and cost savings of more than 80 per cent.