OSI Geospatial signed a $2 million contract with Siemens to provide an Integrated Bridge System for the New Zealand navy's frigate Platform System Upgrade Program.

The contract calls for OSI to deliver two of its Integrated Navigation and Tactical Systems for the ANZAC class frigates.

OSI also will work with Siemens to integrate Siemens' Integrated Platform Management System into a common multi-function workstation. Work is to be completed by the end of the year, OSI said.

"This is OSI Geospatial's first project with Siemens and paves the way for a strong business relationship," OSI President and Chief Executive Officer Walter Purio said.

"The opportunity to deliver our INTS solution to a longstanding and important customer, the New Zealand navy, deepens our industry-leading position with the navies of the world."

OSI Geospatial's relationship with the New Zealand navy began in 2004 with a contract to supply the entire fleet with the company's Electronic Chart Precise Integrated Navigation System for warships.

OSI Geospatial, publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange, operates two business units.

Offshore Systems, which has headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, provides integrated navigation and tactical solutions. CHI Systems, in Philadelphia, is a research and development unit of OSI, supplying systems integration for defense, aerospace, health and bioscience markets.

Last month, the second phase of the $58 million ANZAC Platform Systems Upgrade program aboard the frigates Te Kaha and Te Mana got under way.

Siemens was one of several businesses, including Noske-Kaeser, Australian Marine Technologies and ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Australia, that picked up design and manufacturing contracts for the upgrade program.

New Zealand's Ministry of Defense has a project team office in Melbourne, Australia where the team closely works with ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Australia, which holds the design license for the ANZAC-class ships. TKMS, as the design authority, monitors the project, in particular specification changes to avoid knock-on problems.

"The ANZAC Platform Systems Upgrade contracts will allow the navy to leverage-off the technology developments that have been made over the past 20 years," Defense Minister Wayne Mapp said.

Work includes improvements to the ships' overall management systems as well as heating, ventilation air conditioning units to boost automatic control and monitoring. Importantly, it will allow the ships to operate better -- and give better working and living conditions to sailors -- in a wider range of climate extremes.

The upgrade work will be carried out in New Zealand as well as Australia, Canada and Germany.

The Te Kaha and Te Mana are two of the 10 ANZAC class frigates built in Australia by Tenix Defense Systems in Williamstown, and the only ANZAC vessels serving with the New Zealand navy.

Te Kaha was laid down in 1994 and commissioned into the RNZN in 1997, followed by the Te Mana, launched in 1997 and commissioned in December 1999. The 387-foot-long ships with ranges of more than 7,000 nautical miles are "the mainstay of the navy's combat force," the Defense Ministry said.