JFD continues its investment programme in the Indian economy

JFD, the world leading underwater capability provider serving the commercial and defence diving markets and part of James Fisher and Sons plc, has delivered a new £1million contract to supply two sets of life-saving equipment to the Indian Navy, to further enhance the safety of submariners.

The life-saving equipment, including D-MAS HyperSat and hyperbaric ventilators, provides state-of-the-art patient monitoring to the Indian Navy’s highly advanced submarine rescue system, allowing doctors to monitor the health and well-being of submariners. The contract forms part of a wider commercial agreement between JFD and the Indian Navy, which aims to enhance the safety of submariners while consolidating JFD’s presence in India and investing in the country’s economy.

The newly delivered equipment provides medical monitoring solutions for saturation diving and hyperbaric chambers.  This provides data of the patients’ clinical vital signs, heart rhythm, blood pressure, SpO2 and core temperature for specialists to assess and provide expert medical advice remotely.  The contract for provision of equipment also includes a 5 year maintenance support programme.

This year, JFD will also increase its in-country presence in India to support a 25-year all-inclusive maintenance support service agreement signed with the Indian Navy in March 2016. This will involve a multi-million rupee investment in infrastructure, setting up a local Joint Venture with our Indian partner as well as training for Indian nationals that will enable them to become experts in the maintenance of JFD’s subsea equipment.

Giovanni Corbetta, managing director, JFD, said:

“Protecting the lives of submariners is at the core of our business. The provision of life-saving equipment delivered on time to the submarine rescue systems used by the Indian Navy further enhances their safety standards in the most remote and hostile environments. Providing the hyperbaric ventilators and D-MAS HyperSat further establishes our presence in India and we will continue to expand our investment, local presence and resources in the country in 2020 and beyond to develop our global supply chain to benefit our customers world-wide.”

The delivery of this life-saving equipment comes two years after JFD provided two complete Third Generation fly-away submarine rescue systems to the Indian Navy. The systems, which were delivered in 2018, included all the logistics and support equipment required to operate the service. The equipment was designed, manufactured, integrated and tested by JFD prior to shipping to India. It also underwent a full series of advanced Sea Acceptance Trials (SATs), with JFD personnel remaining in India to work in close partnership with the Indian Navy to complete comprehensive training on the safe operation of the system. For this contract, JFD researched the local Indian supply chain to ensure the provision of high-quality products and necessary quality standards for the systems, which will continue to be explored throughout 2020 and beyond to expand JFD’s global supply chain.