In September 2010, SAGE Automation began building the first of 450 control panels for the Air Warfare Destroyers (AWD’s) project under a $2.6 million, four-year contract with Spanish naval defence company Navantia. 

Navantia engaged SAGE as their in-country support to deliver the control panels, which form a critical component of the AWD’s Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS).  The IPMS is used for the real-time monitoring and control of the vessel's hull, mechanical, electrical, damage control machinery and systems.

In November 2014, Navantia and AWD stakeholders visited SAGE Automation to celebrate the practical completion of these works which took in excess of 9,500 hours over 4 years.

On reaching this milestone, SAGE Automation CEO Adrian Fahey said “We are proud and privileged to have provided this crucial technology for such a significant project.”

“The scale, technology and skills within our manufacturing facility have certainly made the job of delivering a panel build of this scale a smooth one.” 

Donato Martinez of Navantia thanked SAGE by saying “Thank you to the entire team, for 4 years of hard work. This is not the end, we now look forward to the set to work and sea trials”.

The set to work activities are due to commence shortly. 

Whilst this was one of the first projects for SAGE in the defence sector, SAGE has gone on to deliver a number of projects across the defence sector including the Chemring Countermeasures Explosive manufacturing facility, which was named Process and Control Engineering (PACE) Project of the year in 2013.

“More and more we are seeing the defence sector move towards commercial and military off-the-shelf solutions, for which SAGE is perfectly positioned to support.” Mr Fahey said.