L-3 to retrofit Taiwanese research vessel

Facilities to be supplied and installed on Ta Kuan comprise an eco-friendly propulsion concept for optimising drive redundancy and reliability of the existing motors, as well as a high-performance control unit to handle complex monitoring and control tasks.

“Ta Kuan is one of our earlier projects, having already been equipped with our propulsion system, and we are very proud to continue our support of this platform for this major upgrade effort,” said Reinhard Swoboda, senior vice president of drives and special systems.

L-3 SAM Electronics’ MCS Platinum automated monitoring and control system will complete the retrofit, with around 1,100 data inputs remotely controlled from several onboard computer workstations.

The scope of supply also includes L-3’s Geapas 500 power management system, providing extensive management and protection functions for generator and diesel engines with a common LCD panel for monitoring and control.

The 93m vessel, built by Fincantieri at its shipyard in Muggiano, La Spezia, Italy in 1995, carries out operations in domestic waters as well as the South China Sea on behalf of Taiwan’s governmental National Science Council and other research institutes.

The completion of the retrofit is planned for later this year.