10 sep 2019

Team iMAST sets out to provide a step-change for UK Royal Navy and Royal Marines Training

Three of the UK’s leading Maritime Defence companies – Babcock, QinetiQ and Thales – along with academic and industry partners have joined forces to create Team iMAST: intelligent Maritime Adaptive Synthetics and Training to bid to support the modernisation of the UK Royal Navy’s individual maritime training.

Down selected to bid earlier this year, the bespoke Team iMAST collaboration – led by Babcock and comprising, QinetiQ and Centerprise International along with the Universities of Portsmouth and Strathclyde – has recently been joined by Thales and Learning Technologies Group to further bolster its highly-experienced offering. And boasting its Innovation Ecosystem of more than 50 Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), Team iMAST is ready to deliver training to the Royal Navy when and where it is required, if selected.

Team iMAST and the Innovation Ecosystem will enable critical technology integration, backed by proven naval training resources, to drive future-ready training solutions for all elements of the Royal Navy. To launch this Ecosystem, two successful events have already been held with the most recent hosted by Team iMAST at the Digital Catapult, the UK’s leading agency for the early adoption of advanced digital technologies.

With its wealth of proven expertise, Team iMAST is uniquely placed to support this training outsource programme through its unrivalled industry know-how. The programme will provide an opportunity to help shape the future of Royal Navy training as a strategic partner and drive efficiencies and new technology. 

Mark Graves, Managing Director, Babcock Marine Training said: “We have an opportunity to help shape the future for Royal Navy training and this excites every member of the iMAST team.  We’ve brought together an agile and experienced collective for this bid that can meet the challenges from day one – and already understand how to support the Royal Navy to deliver successfully.

“Our mission is to transform education and training for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines and to do this at a pace that can exceed the customers’ requirements.”

In addition to the provision of training, the winning bidder of the outsourcing project will be responsible for designing, procuring and managing the maintenance and repair of all associated training equipment. It will also support the delivery and procurement of the interior design, fit out and relocation to a new purpose built facility for submarine training based on the Clyde.  

Team iMAST takes its inspiration from Babcock’s iSupport ³⁶⁰ concept which brings total insight to projects creating powerful new ways of optimising digital technology to uniquely deliver the complete picture of customer’s programmes. 

Providing intelligent, connected insights and evaluation, iSupport ³⁶⁰ interprets and integrates technology and information to support the management of critical assets such as ships and submarines as well as facilities, infrastructure and training.