A COMPANY based in a small market town has landed a contract worth almost £570,000 to supply life-saving equipment to the US navy.

Analox, in Stokesley, North Yorkshire, will provide the navy's submarine fleet with nearly 200 emergency atmospheric monitors by the end of the year.

The Submarine Escape Analysers measure the levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the air, as well as the pressure and temperature and are produced at the company's base in Stokesley.

Analox's sales and marketing director Vicky Brown said: "The US navy has the largest submarine fleet in the world. It has taken a few years to get to this stage - particularly because we are not a US-based firm - but we now have a strong advocate for the product."

Analox already supplies the British, Canadian and Norwegian forces with the analysers and is in talks with the Italians, French and Chinese.

The equipment is used in the event of a submarine being involved in an incident that leaves it unable to surface.

Miss Brown said: "The crew would need to know the ongoing status of the air they breath. The analyser monitors gases in the air as the pressure changes."

Analox, which employs 38 people, also provides breathing air analysis equipment for military and commercial diving as well as gas analysis equipment for the industrial safety market.