Safran – the Inertial Navigation Champion

Safran Electronics & Defense’s new R&D center, the leading inertial navigation research facility in Europe, was inaugurated on October 6, 2016 by French President François Hollande. Located in Eragny sur Oise, about 30 kilometers northwest of Paris, this center mainly focuses on defense applications. According to Jean-Luc Migot, the head of CED-NS, “The idea was to consolidate the complementary activities of two entities, which had become scattered over the years as they worked on various contracts and projects.” The new facility spans some 34,000 square meters (367,200 sq ft), including 400 square meters (4,320 sq ft) of clean rooms, used for cutting-edge research, such as the sophisticated sensors used in inertial navigation systems.

stealth and autonomy

Besides their very high precision, inertial navigation system offer two main advantages: they are fully autonomous and undetectable. These systems can be used by any type of vehicle to position itself in space without requiring outside aide, like satellite-based GPS signals. They also feature very high reliability, making them the guidance and navigation system of choice for armed forces, especially when operating in hostile territory. “Inertial navigation involves the precise measurement of two parameters, acceleration and rotation, to determine the position and absolute movement of any type of combat platform – aircraft, surface ship or submarine, missiles, etc. – without requiring GPS or radio beacons,” explains Jean-Luc Migot. “That gives them complete stealth and perfect positioning capability, even against countermeasures or at the bottom of the ocean. Of course the global positioning systems offered by America (GPS), Russia (Glonass) and Europe (Galileo) can be used in conjunction with inertial navigation systems.