Next generation submarine designers benefit from BMT’s experience

Experts from BMT Defence Services Ltd are passing on their deep practical understanding of submarine design to the next generation of submarine designers studying at UCL (University College London).

The Submarine Design Course taught at UCL, part of the federal University of London, is the only unclassified submarine design course in the world. The graduate course focuses on conventionally powered submarine design and is respected for its mix of theory and practice.

The mix of theory and practice offered by the UCL Submarine Design Course is achieved through collaboration between UK academia, the UK Ministry of Defence and defence industry companies such as BMT Defence Services, an independent submarine design and engineering support house based in Bath, England. This unique mix attracts students sponsored by companies and government departments from a range of nations operating, or with the ambition to operate, submarine flotillas.

Students on the UCL Submarine Design Course form small study groups developing submarine designs to meet real world challenges, advised and critiqued by industry experts from established design houses such as BMT Defence Services.

The UCL Submarine Design Course places a number of disciplines including marine engineering, naval architecture and systems engineering into the context of an extremely testing environment. The submarine world is one of high pressures, low temperatures, a corrosive environment and tight constraints on volume, weight and power that greatly affect the task of keeping a submarine crew alive and capable of conducting their mission underwater.

BMT Defence Services is one of a small number of companies collaborating with UCL to provide an industrial dimension placing the theory of submarine design into context. The company is a leading independent submarine design and engineering support house; its engineers have a wealth of experience applying academic disciplines to solve real engineering problems to time and budget. This experience has been gained primarily in designing for and supporting the nuclear attack and ballistic missile submarines operated by the Royal Navy.

Professor Simon Rusling, Submarine Design Course Director at UCL, said:

“The UCL Submarine Design Course is the world’s only unclassified course focused on the complex and exciting subject of submarine design. The College encourages academic staff to forge links with industry that will benefit their students’ practical application of the knowledge we impart. We are therefore pleased to work with BMT and other industrial partners, whose experts promote the practical perspective of submarine design, both by describing their personal experiences, and by critiquing the designs students develop to meet the topical challenges we set them.”

Mark Pearce, a Submarine Design Course student at UCL, said:

“Submarine design is highly challenging … we enjoyed listening to people who have spent many years solving the problems of keeping people alive underwater and able to function effectively for months at a time.”

Roger Cooper, Managing Director of BMT Defence Services Ltd., said:

“BMT is pleased to support the Submarine Design Course at UCL. It is important to ensure the next generation of submarine designers learns from the successes, experiences and knowledge gained from preceding generations. This is as true for conventional submarine design, the focus of the UCL course, as for nuclear submarine design. The UK Ministry of Defence understands the importance of retaining nuclear submarine design capability and has made that a keystone of its Maritime Industrial Strategy. We are keen to play our part in sustaining these complementary sets of skills.”