Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE: NOC) Sperry Marine business unit has received service approval from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) to conduct annual performance testing of shipboard voyage data recorder (VDR) installations.

Sperry Marine is the first company in the marine industry to obtain classification society approval for VDR performance testing as required by the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention. According to Andy Fraser, director of worldwide service for Sperry Marine, the company expects to secure similar approvals from other classification societies very quickly.

The ABS service approval means that Sperry Marine can perform VDR recertification testing in virtually every major seaport in the world.

The SOLAS regulations state that a VDR, including all sensors, must be recertified annually on or before the date of the original installation. The test must be conducted by an approved testing or servicing facility to verify the accuracy, duration and recoverability of the recorded data.

Sperry Marine provides turnkey solutions for VDR compliance, including applications engineering, custom design and engineering, interfacing, installation, commissioning, training, service and annual performance testing. The business unit's VoyageMaster VDR is a fully compliant system, which has been type approved by numerous national authorities and classification societies.

Sperry Marine, with worldwide headquarters in Charlottesville, Va., is part of Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector. The business unit provides smart navigation and ship control solutions for the international marine industry with customer service and support through offices in 16 countries, sales representatives in 47 countries, and authorized service depots in more than 250 locations worldwide.

Headquartered in Baltimore, Md., Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems is a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of defense and commercial electronic systems including airborne radar systems, navigation systems, electronic warfare systems, precision weapons, airspace management systems, air defense systems, communications systems, space systems, marine systems, oceanic and naval systems, government systems and logistics services.