The project has demonstrated the capability to manage the energy demands of novel future capabilities such as the Dragonfire Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) currently being developed by Dstl & industry.

The Flywheel Energy Storage System (FESS) uses innovative high-speed & lightweight flywheels to provide high-power electrical pulses that these future systems require, reducing the impact of these systems to the rest of the ship, while avoiding the widely reported safety concern around battery-based systems.

Fundamental to the success of the project has been the collaborative testing of the FESS at both UK and US facilities. This was undertaken under the Advanced Electric Power and Propulsion Project Arrangement (AEP3), an arrangement between Dstl and DE&S in the UK, and NAVSEA’s Electric Ship Office and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in the USA. USA testing was also supported by US Coalition Warfare Program (CWP) funding.

Both nations utilised a Power Hardware-In-the-Loop (PHIL) approach, where a ‘real’ FESS was integrated into a virtual ship power system emulating a RN ship operating in real-time. This approach offers a cost effective way to develop the hardware and de-risk its integration into a real ship, as well as to develop control and operating approaches.

After testing the FESS at the Florida State University’s (FSU) CAPs facility, the FESS was brought back to the UK and tested at the Power Networks Demonstration Centre (PNDC) in Scotland. This has allowed the UK to develop its PHIL capabilities and allowed both nations to validate their facilities and models against each other.

This work forms part of a planned wider de-risking activity to enable the RN to successfully integrate future energy intensive loads.

Andrew Tate from Dstl, said:

This technology was originally developed by the Williams F1 team and was brought to us for potential use in Defence. We saw an attractive option to bolster defence capability through the provision of more robust and futureproof power systems for naval ships. The development of FESS and the close working we have achieved with DE&S, GKN, PNDC and our US partners has now provided a significant addition benefit in the development of real-time modelling capability and PHIL testing facilities at PNDC.

Kyle Jennett, the PNDC MOD programme Technical Lead said:

This project gave us a great opportunity to showcase the Power Hardware in the Loop (PHIL) test-bed that we’ve developed at PNDC. This test bed lets us connect real-world hardware, like the FESS, to simulated naval platforms to evaluate the impact on the ship during different operational scenarios. This testing can accelerate equipment development, de-risk integration challenges, and limit the need for costly shore demonstrators. In the case of the flywheel the 2-stage testing at PNDC, and coordinated product development with the supplier, has resulted in a significant improvement in the responsiveness and stability of the FESS system.

John Wilkinson, Director of Devices at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, will be stepping down from his position at the end of October 2019.

John has been with the Agency since February 2012. Since that time, he has made a significant contribution to the work of the organisation, both nationally and internationally. Together with his team, he has led on the safety of medical devices and the review of future medical devices regulation.

As such, and as one of his many achievements, John championed the development of the new EU Regulations for Medical Devices and In Vitro Diagnostic device legislation.

John has also chaired the Competent Authorities Medical Devices (CAMD) Executive, which seeks to enhance collaboration between European member states and the European Commission in developing and managing the EU medical devices regulatory system.

He has led his team of experts in investigating reports of problems involving medical devices. The results of which are used to advise the public and healthcare professionals on the safe use of devices, as well as work with manufacturers to improve device safety.

In announcing his retirement, John said:

These decisions are never easy to make, and with a very heavy heart, I have now decided to step down from my role at the Agency. I felt that now was the right time for me to move on to the next stage of my life.

These last 7 years have been a wonderful experience for myself and I am proud to have been associated with, and worked for, the regulator. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Agency colleagues with whom I’ve worked – I leave knowing that their drive and commitment in protecting public health will continue unabated.

It’s for others to judge for themselves the work I’ve done, but my aim has always been to ensure high levels of patient safety whilst creating the right environment for medical devices to develop at a pace which continues to improve people’s lives and contributes to a sustainable development of our health services.”

Prior to joining the Agency, John was Chief Executive of Eucomed, the European medical technology industry association.

His earlier experience included the role of Director General of the Association of British Healthcare Industries and a number of roles in the medical devices industry, both in the UK and the USA, with Becton Dickinson and the BOC Group. These were followed by a period as Chief Executive of an early stage medical imaging company.

John holds a first degree in Zoology from the University of Aberdeen and an MBA from the University of Warwick.

He was awarded an OBE for services to the medical devices industry in the 2010 New Year’s honours list.

Do you have good manual skills and knowledge of workshop techniques? The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is looking for an Engineering Support Technician who is practical, reliable and safety conscious.

Working within the Engineering Support Section, primarily you will work for the Engineering Support / Health and Safety Manager to provide engineering support, both at the AAIB facilities and at accident sites. You will also be responsible for the general up-keep of the AAIB technical facilities, deployment kit and health and safety equipment including procurement.

You can read the full role profile and apply for this position on the Civil Service Jobs site. The deadline for applications is 21 May.

Ordnance Survey (OS), the Environment Agency (EA) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have collaborated to bring together a nationally consistent view of Great Britain’s watercourses.

For over two decades the EA has carefully mapped the flow of water in rivers across England and Wales to help protect communities from flooding and to improve habitats for wildlife through their Detailed River Network.

This new collaboration combines the data from the Detailed River Network with SEPA’s data on Scotland’s watercourses to produce one comprehensive view of all watercourses across Great Britain.

This project led to the creation of OS MasterMap Water Network and, following its initial launch in 2015, became a full product in April 2019.

This new dataset is a crucial element in understanding our natural environment. As the only detailed, heighted water network of Great Britain, OS MasterMap Water Network is continually updated and improved, showing the flow and precise course of rivers, streams, lakes and canals, at a national and local level.

OS MasterMap Water Network will support analysis used for planning and policy initiatives. This would include managing and reporting of water quality, water resources, fisheries status, mapping navigations, predictive modelling, risk assessment, regulation, incident response and a host of other river-related initiatives, from permitting applications to catchment delineation.

Since its initial launch in 2015, OS, EA and SEPA have continued to work together to improve the product. As a result, we have made 850,000 improvements to the data which focused on watercourse connectivity, flow direction, contiguous naming and identified primary flow path.

Joint working has identified and delivered improvements to successive versions of the dataset through testing. OS and EA are delighted to confirm that EA will start to migrate from their existing Detailed River Network to the OS MasterMap Water Network and will be progressively implementing this across all systems and projects where a network of watercourses is required.

The principal benefits of using the OS MasterMap Water Network are

• Continuous maintained data across geographic boundaries to allow seamless data exchange
• Common references for sharing data with other organisations using the product
• Up-to-date data
• Greater extent e.g. more watercourses mapped in fenland areas
• Better correspondence with OS base data
• Greatly reduced data management overheads for users

Martin Whitworth, Deputy Director for Data and Systems at the Environment Agency, said:

This exciting new collaboration between the Environment Agency and Ordnance Survey is an important step forwards in how we collect and use information about our rivers.

It will give us greater insight into river flows right across Great Britain, helping us to better protect communities in England from flooding whilst also bringing a host of benefits in terms of planning, construction and helping to inform important environmental conservation work.

With the release of OS MasterMap Water Network, EA will no longer need to maintain their Detailed River Network as this data will now be supplied and maintained by Ordnance Survey.

As a result, the Detailed River Network will be withdrawn from the market and this new product will replace it. OS MasterMap Water Network is available to all public sector organisations for free at the point of use and is available through commercial terms for all other organisations.

As part of the collaboration to deliver the OS MasterMap Water Network, OS has worked closely with SEPA and Scottish Government to deliver additional detailed information on the location of culverts managed by Local Authorities.

The culvert information provides the underground connections between watercourses which are vital to understand as part of the “Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009”. We completed the inclusion of the identified Scottish Local Authority culverts at the end of 2017 and are starting to work with SEPA and Scottish Government on how this information will be maintained going forward.

Dr David Pirie, SEPA Executive Director, said:

Every day SEPA works to protect and enhance Scotland’s environment, including helping Scotland prepare more powerfully for future increased flooding in the face of clear science on climate change.

This new more detailed map of Scotland’s rivers will enhance SEPA’s reporting of environmental data and provide better information on the risk of flooding.

OS will continue to work together with EA and SEPA to ensure the product meets their needs as well as the needs of other customers. For further information go to OS MasterMap Water Network