Gerald R Ford Lower Bow Lift. Photo by Ricky Thompson via Huntington Ingalls

Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division this week reached a major milestone in the construction of the U.S. Navy’s new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), as the lower bow was lowered into place in dry dock.

As we saw earlier this week, the Gerald R. Ford is being built using modular construction, a process where smaller sections of the ship are welded together to form large structural units, outfitting is installed, and the large unit is lifted into the dry dock. Of the nearly 500 total structural lifts needed to complete the ship, 390 have been accomplished.

The lower bow section shown here is more than 60 feet tall and, at 680-metric-tons, is one of the heaviest superlifts to be placed on the ship.

“The lower bow is a distinctive component of an aircraft carrier,” said Rolf Bartschi, NNS’ vice president of CVN 78 carrier construction. “Its sheer size is indicative of the massive undertaking of this project and the incredible work ethic of the shipbuilders bringing Ford to life. I congratulate the team on yet another major construction milestone.”

This is one of the cooler photos we’ve seen in a while and I highly recommend viewing it in hi-res, HERE.

The placement of the lower bow section as seen during the Gerald R. Ford build sequence animation. Click for Video

USS Miami arrives for overhaul at PNSY on March 1st. NAVSEA image

USS Miami, an American Los Angeles-class “improved” fast attack submarine was undergoing a routine maintenance shipyard availability at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard when she caught fire at 5:41 PM Wednesday evening.

The blaze continued for a full 13 hours until finally extinguished this morning at 6:45 EST.

Rear Admiral Rick Breckenridge, Commander, of Submarine Group Two in Groton, Connecticut commented,

“Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Fire Department and Ship’s force, along with mutual assistance from several other area fire departments, immediately responded and successfully extinguished the fire on USS MIAMI.

“The fire and subsequent damage was limited to the forward compartment spaces only which includes crew living and command and control spaces. The nuclear propulsion spaces were physically isolated from the Forward Compartment early during initial response.

Admiral Breckenridge gave high praise of the heroic actions by the firefighters involved, and acknowledged that minor injuries were sustained by seven response personnel.

“The injured personnel included three Portsmouth Naval Shipyard fire-fighters; two ships force crew members; and two civilian fire-fighters providing support. These personnel were either treated on-scene or transported to a local medical facility for further treatment and all have been released. So all injured personnel have been released and are in good shape. There were no casualties in this fire.

During the firefighting response, the reactor spaces, found in the aft end of the boat, “remained in a safe and stable condition throughout the event.” and shipboard reactor watch standers maintained a reactor room presence throughout the ordeal.

There were no weapons on board and full investigation has begun to determine the cause of the fire.

USS Miami on March 15th:

The USS Miami on March 15th as it enters dry dock to begin an engineered overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. (U.S. Navy photo by Jim Cleveland/Released)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ever wonder why an aircraft carrier takes so long to build?

Aircraft carriers, and warships in general, are about as complicated as the CPU in your computer, and the Gerald R. Ford, currently under construction at Huntington Ingalls Shipyard, is certainly no exception.  She’s literally been under some form of construction since 2007, and will be the first new class of US aircraft carrier since USS Nimitz was commissioned in May, 1975.

In an effort to increase the efficiency of the $9 billion design/build process for this ship, Huntington Ingalls utilized the latest and most advanced computer tool capabilities and functionalities for visual integration in design, engineering, planning and construction.

Every piece of this ridiculous puzzle (Over 3 million pieces to be exact) was created in full-scale a 3-D model, so technically, the ship has been completed since 2009… at least in the virtual world.  In the real world, at any given time hundreds of designers, engineers, planners and construction representatives were in the model designing, creating and planning every feature of the ship.

Huntington Ingalls notes that the Ford’s data set comprises of 2 terabytes, or 2,000 gigabytes of data.

Part of the design build process is to validate requirements and ensure ship specifications are met, including access, passage, repair, take-downs, removals of components and safe working areas. For the Ford-class, Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding considered sailors with heights in the 95th percentile male to the 5th percentile female, ensuring all operations can be performed without restriction of human size.

Working on the 3-D model. Image courtesy Huntington Ingalls

Consideration of emergency crew wearing various apparatus and the capability of routing injured personnel through the ship also was considered. All these design challenges along with working to maintain the shortest and optimal routes for distributive systems tested the capabilities of the 3-D visualization tools.

At first glance, the Ford hull design may look similar to the Nimitz, however this new ship is brimming with the latest 21st century technology.

Flight deck changes

Flight deck: The island is smaller and moved farther aft than on Nimitz class so there is more area for airplane maintenance and flight deck operations will be faster and safer due to better space utilization

Weapons Elevator: Elevators use moving electromagnetic fields instead of cabling, which allows elevator shaft to use horizontal doors to close off magazines. This reduces manning and maintenance costs.

Flexible Infrastructure: Flexible infrastructure architecture that allows spaces to be adaptable to rapid changes without the use of “hot work.” It eases compartment reconfiguration to support changing missions, maximizes time for technology development prior to equipment installation, and eliminates cost and schedule impacts associated with the traditional conflicts from re-work.

Advanced Arresting Gear: Recovers current and future aircraft, is lighter than the legacy system, software controls, reduce manning.

New technologies

Among the new technologies in the Ford-class are:

• Multifunction radar and volume search radar: Comprised of the SPY-3 X-band MFR (multi function radar), and S-Band VSR (volume search radar), integrates two radars operating on different frequency bands

The electromagnetic catapult system increases efficiency by removing the old steam-powered catapults. Image: HII

Improved efficiency

With the Ford-class, the Navy has made capital investments to reduce cost and maintenance over the carrier’s life span — that’s $5B in total ownership cost savings over the 50-year life of the ship. The improved design of the carrier allows for more efficient operations and requires fewer sailors to man. Among the efficiencies are:

• Steam to electric transition: No catapult steam, no service steam and no steam turbine driven auxiliaries.
• Fewer overall components: A third to a half as many valves, elimination of 70 sea chests, three vs. four aircraft elevators, one vs. two hangar bays.
• Extended drydocking interval: the Ford-class is designed for 12 year intervals
• Improved shipwide air conditioning: Provides lower moisture and dirt levels
• LED Battle Lanterns: The LED light source will be life of ship and the lower power demand will greatly extend lanterns run time per battery. In the Nimitz class, the current bulb has a 100-hour life.
• Electric Water Heaters: Moving away from steam heating for hot potable water will lower the maintenance load and will reduce ships weight by eliminating a piping network that covered the entire ship.
• Better shipboard lighting: High efficiency fluorescent T-8 lighting will be utilized throughout Ford-class ships. The T-8 light produces more light than the legacy T-12 with reduced energy consumption — each bulb will last almost twice as long as the previous lighting system.

Ford-class carriers can be operated with 800 fewer billets than the Nimitz class of carriers.

General Characteristics, Gerald R. Ford class
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va.
Propulsion: Two nuclear reactors, four shafts
Length: 1,092 feet
Beam: 134 feet, Fligt Deck Width: 256 feet.
Displacement: approximately 100,000 long tons full load.
Speed: 30+ knots (34.5 miles per hour)
Crew: 4,660 (ship, air wing and staff).
Armament: Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, Rolling Airframe Missile, CIWS.
Aircraft: 75+.

MOSHIP, image via Rolls Royce

MOSHIP is a dedicated submarine rescue mother ship designed to perform subsea and surface search and rescue missions in various sea conditions.  This vessel is capable of detecting distressed submarines, providing life support including ventilation and pod posting, evacuating her crew up to 600 meters of depth and transferring them under pressure up to 5 Bar.

Operational Capabilities Include:

• Search and rescue up to and including sea state 6
• Sea bottom imaging, high acoustic capabilities
• Towed Side Scan Sonar (TSSS) operations
• Detecting the distressed submarine
• Position keeping at 4 knots current and sea state 4 with Class II Dynamic Positioning System
• Providing life support to the crew including ELSS pod posting
• External ventilation (up to 600 m. depth)
• Dissub personnel rescue (up to 600 m. depth)
• Transferring under pressure
• Treating diving diseases with post modern decompression/ recompression pressure chambers and extensive hospital facilities
• Twin interconnected, L-type SRV connectible pressure chambers for 32 rescuees
• Acting as a medevac station with her heli-deck, capable of operating around the clock, up to sea state 4
• A clear aft deck area of 650 m2
• Operating with certified US SRDRS system with built-in A-frame of US SRDRS SRV and hydraulic/ telescopic crane of 35 tons capacity
• Operating with certified NATO NSRS system
• Atmospheric Diving Suit (ADS) operations
• Submarine Rescue Chamber (SRC) operations
• Personnel Transfer Capsule (PTC) operations
• Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) operations
• Acting as a medevac station with her heli-deck, capable of operating around the clock, up to sea state 4
• A clear aft deck area of 650 m2
• Operating with certified US SRDRS system with built-in A-frame of US SRDRS SRV and hydraulic/ telescopic crane of 35 tons capacity
• Operating with certified NATO NSRS system
• Atmospheric Diving Suit (ADS) operations
• Submarine Rescue Chamber (SRC) operations

The following is an animation from Istanbul Shipyard depicting the MOSHIP.  (We recommend you mute your volume, or feel free to crank it up if you enjoy rocking out to Kylie Minogue)

This is the first order for thrusters that Rolls-Royce has received from the Turkish Navy, which is planning a significant ship building programme in the coming years.

Sam Cameron, Rolls-Royce, Senior Vice President – Naval Sales and Business Development said:

“The Turkish Navy is an important customer, with whom we have a strong relationship. Our technology is particularly well suited to naval applications and we look forward to developing the relationship with both the Istanbul Shipyard and the Turkish Navy in the future.”

Rolls-Royce supplies seventy navies around the world and has previously supplied controllable pitch propellers and sonar handling systems to the Turkish Navy.

Azipull thrusters rotate through 360 degrees and can propel the ship in any direction offering high manoeuvrability, without the need for a rudder. This technology enables vessels to hold their position more effectively, which is especially important for vessels carrying out search and rescue missions.

Want to know more? Check out our interview with Jay McFadyen, President of Rolls-Royce Naval Marine.

USS Essex (LHD 2) pulls alongside USNS Walter S. Diehl (T-AO 193) in preparation for a replenishment at sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class William T. Jenkins/Released)

She has been forward deployed to the US 7th Fleet for a dozen years and was scheduled to finally arrive back to San Diego tomorrow, however instead of telling stories of missions accomplished and far off port calls, the Commanding Officer of USS Essex, Capt. Chuck Litchfield, will be faced with serious questions on why his ship collided with the refueling tanker, USNS Yukun, during an underway replenishment at sea (UNREP) today.

And he’s only been in command of the ship for 3 weeks…

The US Navy has so far traced the root cause of the collision to an apparent steering malfunction on board the Essex.   Specific details of this steering malfunction are not yet available, however the Navy has reported that “no one was injured, there was no fuel spilled and the ships’ fuel tanks and systems were not compromised.”

There is very little room for error during UNREP operations which in most (if not all) cases happen at a speed of 13 knots while the ships are separated by no more than roughly 180 feet, usually less.  While conducting these operations, the steering gear room is manned with a direct line of communication with the bridge and the ability to take “local control” of the steering system in case of any sort of issue.

At 13 knots and at such close separation, the ability to react quickly with the right solution is critical to preventing a collision.  The other issue is that as the ships get closer, the Venturi effect becomes more pronounced which in effect, sucks the two ships together, further exasperating an already dire situation.

The Navy comments that they will conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the collision, and a full damange assessment is ongoing.

Essex is scheduled to participate in the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in and around the Hawaiian Islands this summer, and will undergo an extensive maintenance availability period at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) in San Diego after its return.

Essex will be assigned to Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 3 within U.S. Third Fleet and homeported in San Diego. Third Fleet leads naval forces in the Eastern Pacific from the West Coast of North America to the International Date Line.

In keeping with the government’s love for giant acronyms, they created the ICODE MDA, that is, the International Collaborative Development for Enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness, which is one of 14 projects selected by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to receive $1 million awards beginning this fall through the Coalition Warfare Program, which funds international collaborative research efforts.

The ICODE MDA project is a research alliance between ONR and Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific). ONR is partnering with scientists to build Web-based applications (widgets) for use by sailors and maritime operators to analyze data and other information to combat pirates, drug smugglers, arms traffickers, illegal fishermen and other nefarious groups.

“A lot of maritime threats occur in developing parts of the world,” said Dr. Augustus Vogel, associate director for Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa in ONR-Global’s Chile office. “Our goal is to develop partnerships with countries that have maritime threats to help solve those problems.”

ONR will tap researchers at the Technical University of Federico Santa Maria, one of Chile’s top engineering schools, to create Web-based tools in an open source environment. The work will focus on producing software to improve automation, small-target detection and intent detection.

Ultimately, the software will be compatible with multiple maritime network systems so that navies around the world can use the tools and share information for global operations.

“We’ll take those tools and integrate them into a widget framework that can be part of a coalition-accessible Web portal,” said John Stastny, an engineer in the advanced analysis systems branch at SSC Pacific, who is helping to lead the ICODE MDA project.

This announcement comes on the heels of a NOAA sponsored project Whale Alert, an iPhone app that tracks Right Whale movements along coastal waters which leads to the questions… will iPhones soon become required equipment on the bridge of all ships?

The first piece of the flight deck for the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) was erected April 7 at Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding. Photo by Chris Oxley

The head of Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. (HII) said Wednesday that a new round of enforced Pentagon budget cuts could thin the shipbuilder’s supplier base and make its ships and submarines more expensive.

The potential for automatic cuts in the Defense budget under the so-called sequestration process has left big U.S. contractors wrestling with the future shape of their businesses and has led to stark warnings of job losses and threats to national security.

Mike Petters, chief executive of Huntington Ingalls, opened a new front in the debate with his warning that such cuts could inflate procurement costs. Contractors may be left relying on more single-source suppliers as lack of business forces smaller companies out of business.

Petters said on a post-earnings call that more than half of the company’s 5,000 suppliers were already its sole source of particular parts and services. “If you step back and think about what sequestration could do to that, the 60% that are sole source, that number could go up,” he said.

Huntington Ingalls was spun out of Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) last year and is viewed as more resilient to budget cuts than peers after the Pentagon prioritized many naval projects as part of efforts to boost the U.S. military presence in the Pacific.

Petters said the company’s existing order book gave it relative stability for three to five years. “A lot of the folks in our industry do not have that ability and a lot of the folks in our supply chains do not have that ability,” he said.

Other defense contractors with more exposure to Army and Air Force equipment have said they are starting to feel the impact of the funding uncertainty, though most don’t expect any clarity until there is further movement on the broader federal budget impasse after the presidential election in November.

Huntington Ingalls’s shares slid in the wake of first-quarter earnings that fell short of expectations, though Petters said he was happy with its execution and efforts to boost efficiency as several large programs move into a key phase over the summer.

The company reported a profit of $33 million, compared with $45 million a year earlier, while per-share earnings dipped to 67 cents from 92 cents. Revenue dropped 6.9% to $1.57 billion.

New business awards for the quarter were about $800 million, bringing total backlog to $15.5 billion as of March 31, down from $16.3 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.

Its shares were down 6.6% at $36.75 in recent trading Wednesday but have climbed almost 20% so far this year.

-By Doug Cameron, Dow Jones Newswires
Shares closed Tuesday at $39.34 and were inactive premarket. The stock has gained 26% since the beginning of the year.

Copyright © 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

- By Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden, Director Surface Warfare

Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rowden Director, Surface Warfare (N96) Chief of Naval Operations

There has been a lot of discussion on the littoral combat ship and how the LCS will shape the surface Navy.

This debate is both natural and healthy. All parties have a vested interest in ensuring that taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately on a quality platform and that our Navy continues to remain not just relevant, but a leader in today’s global maritime environment.

I believe that both objectives are being met with the LCS.

The Navy is committed to the LCS program and we are confident that we are on a path to success.

LCS provides unique capability; it is designed to win against 21^stcentury threats in coastal waters where increasingly capable submarines, mines, and swarming small craft operate. Currently, we depend on frigates, patrol combatants, and mine countermeasure ships to counter these threats.  These classes of ships are nearing the end of their service lives.  In LCS, the capabilities of three ship classes are provided by a single class, thanks to an interchangeable modular design that allows the ship to be reconfigured to meet mission requirements.

The Navy routinely expects issues to arise with first-of-class shipbuilding programs. Every Navy ship is designed with a test and trials period specifically to ensure everything is working correctly, and repairs can be made, if required. This also allows us to incorporate lessons learned into the follow-on ships before they’re delivered.

LCS 1 and 2 are R&D ships. The continued testing and operation of the first-of-class ships will also provide us valuable real world data to inform refinement of our distance support, maintenance, manning, and operational concepts.

Proof that we’re learning…

LCS 3 successfully completed INSURV Acceptance Trials last Friday, with 85% fewer discrepancies identified compared to LCS 1. We’ve learned a great deal about these ships in the process, and we will only continue to learn more as we bring additional LCS ships to the fleet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Navy is conducting developmental tests on components of the LCS mine countermeasures mission package. All components of the package are scheduled for full operational evaluation in fiscal year 2014.

The LCS program is vital to the U.S. Navy and our allies and partners.  From concept design to delivery, LCS took significantly less time than the traditional surface combatant ship (CG 47/DDG 51) timeline of 12-15 years.  In a relatively short period, we have designed a revolutionary new ship class, commissioned two ships, and will soon deliver the third LCS with nine more LCSs in various phases of construction or pre-construction.

There has been a lot of debate about the future of LCS and how it will impact the way in which the surface Navy operates. This is a new class of ship with unique capabilities. I look forward to continuing the discussion with you.

This article originally appeared on Navy Live, THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY

USNS Spearhead (JHSV 1), the innovative high-speed catamaran transport ship under construction by shipbuilder Austal in Mobile, Alabama, successfully completed Builder’s Sea Trials (BST) on April 19 in the Gulf of Mexico. The trials encompassed over 50 demonstration events that enabled the shipbuilder to rigorously test the ship and all of its systems in preparation for final inspection by the United States Navy before delivery.

Notable achievements during the trials included a demonstration of major systems along with first-of-class standardization and maneuverability trials, reaching a top speed in excess of 35 knots.

A series of high-speed ahead and astern maneuvers in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrated the effectiveness of the ship’s four steerable waterjets. In the course of repeated high-speed turns the ship demonstrated the stability and agility of the catamaran hullform, with the JHSV exhibiting virtually no heeling motions throughout the radical turns.

Upon returning from the full-power trial, Joe Rella, President and Chief Operating Officer of Austal USA, remarked:

“The successful first run trials for this prototype vessel validates the quality and reliability of Austal’s shipbuilding know-how. I have never witnessed a more problem-free Builder’s Sea Trial than USNS Spearhead’s. The global Austal organization successfully participated in the design, procurement, and production of this ship with a great outcome, all being accomplished while locally, Austal USA continues to hire new workers and expand our facilities. This is a telltale sign of the dedication of our team of shipbuilding professionals.”

Austal is currently under contract with the U.S. Navy to build nine 103-meter JHSVs under a 10-ship, US$1.6 billion contract and five 127-meter Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class vessels, four of which are a part of a 10-ship, US$3.5 billion contract.

For the LCS and JHSV programs, Austal, as prime contractor, is teamed with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics. As the ship systems integrator, General Dynamics is responsible for the design, integration and testing of the ship’s electronic systems including the combat system, networks, and seaframe control. General Dynamics’ proven open architecture approach allows for affordable and efficient capability growth as technologies develop.

Austal has grown into one of southern Alabama’s largest employers with over 2,800 employees on staff hailing from the Mobile Area, Mississippi, Florida, and beyond. Under the current workload, Austal expects to employ over 4,000 Americans by the end of 2013.

16 April 2012

Jay McFadyen, President, Rolls-Royce Naval Marine

RA:  Jay, Rolls-Royce has a significant presence in a number of different sectors can you give us an overview of Rolls-Royce’s global business?

JM:  We work across four segments, Civil Aero, Defense Aero, Energy and Marine.  As part of that, the Marine Sector has been the fastest growing over the past decade. It’s roughly the second biggest piece of the company behind the civil aerospace sector.

Rolls-Royce has the biggest portfolio of marine equipment on board ships in the world, found on 30,000 vessels.  We have 70 navies around the world that operate Rolls-Royce equipment, including most of the US Navy fleet operating at least some element of Rolls-Royce equipment on board, particularly controllable pitch propellers.

Within the marine business, which is headquartered in Singapore, we have over 7,000 employees around the world. Our three customer facing business units include Offshore, Merchant, and Naval. We also have a Services business supporting customers in all three.

Naval is the piece that I work in and I have the North American piece of Naval, but we operate globally.  Within Naval we have around 800 people supporting our products and our customers around the world, predominantly based in the US and UK, although we have picked up some folks as part of our recent acquisition of ODIM and that’s given us two offices in Canada, one in Peterborough, Ontario, and one in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

RA:  What is ODIM?

JM: ODIM is a subsea and seismic technology company.  The part that falls into our Naval business is specialty handling equipment, such as winches, winch systems for sonar and launch and recovery frames.

RA:  Why did Rolls-Royce pursue that?

JM:  It was predominantly a strategic acquisition for seismic and subsea and they have some specialty equipment that extends into our offshore supply and support vessel business unit.

RA:  I’ve noticed that a lot of the work that Rolls-Royce has been doing in that sector has been full scope.  That is, the complete ship design, integrated bridge, as well as providing the engines as well.

JM:  Exactly right. Around 60% of the value of the ship is found in the high value parts of the ship, such as the engines and propulsors. We design the ships and provide complete integrated power and propulsion systems, and equipment.

We’re looking at how do we mimic that sort of design and systems integration approach within naval, and we’re doing it with a tug and salvage vessel design which is in service with a number of navies, where we’re providing a vessel that is based on an offshore UT design as well as providing the handling and propulsion systems.  The Rolls-Royce UT design is the benchmark for the offshore industry.

Going into the Naval side of the business, we have about 500 of the 800 people worldwide working with the US Navy.  The way we like to differentiate ourselves is that we have 500 people that work in North America who wake up every day with their primary goal being to service the US Navy.  We have a really dedicated team with a specific target customer and we’re working to solve problems for them.

We have a number of different products, but one of the key ones within Naval is the gas turbine.  These include the prime movers found on the Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship and on the DDG 1000 class destroyers, as well as generator sets found on the DDG 51 class destroyer.

RA:  Which gensets are on the DDG 51?

JM:  The 501 gensets, AG 9140s.

RA:  They used to be called something else in the past, weren’t they Allisons?

JM:  They were. Rolls Royce purchased Allison back in 1995 and now it’s become a Rolls Royce-branded engine.

Ship-to-Shore Connector, image: NAVSEA

We have a gas turbine which we’ve offered as part of a proposal for the Ship-to-Shore Connector, which if successful, would be a new power size for the surface navy. What we’re doing though is taking the AE1107 engine, which powers the V-22 Osprey, and “marinizing” that for surface vessel use.

RA:  What kind of changes are needed to “marinize” an engine?

JM:  In this case, it’s truly a unique opportunity for us because in the application, it had to be designed to survive in the marine environment so basically from the inlet flange to the exhaust, there are really no changes.  The changes are all external to the engine such as the power take-off shaft, the control system, the starter, and the interface to the fuel system.  Other than that, it’s identical to the engine that’s on the V-22.

This is a terrific opportunity to the Navy because the Ship-to-Shore Connector and the V-22 would both be operating off the same platforms.  So all the LPDs and LHAs, would all have V-22s on the deck, and Ship-to-Shore Connectors in the well deck.  The Rolls-Royce engine is serviced through a thru-life support agreement where we have service reps that ride the ships, we have parts that are stocked in the Aviation area, and those assets can be deployed to the Ship-to-Shore Connector, so it makes a ton of sense from a logistics and maintenance perspective that those engines would work together on those platforms.

We’re very optimistic that the Navy will see the benefits there.

RA:  Which kind of engines are found on the LPD 17-class ships?

JM:  Those ships are diesel powered, but we will be able to take the aviation element of that and apply it to the Ship-to-Shore connector.

One of the other things that we see as part of a global company is that we have a service network that is distributed around the globe.  As I mentioned, our Marine headquarters is located in Singapore, we have a Marine service shop in Singapore, and we also have relationships on the Air side with joint ventures around service that can be put to use with the Navy.

This comes into play with the potential forward basing of a handful of Littoral Combat Ships in Singapore, and we have the infrastructure in-country to provide repair and overhaul services there, so that you don’t have to take the MT30s and move them back and forth between there and the US if you need service.  We also have trained service reps who can leave our service shop next to the Navy base and provide maintenance support.  With the minimal manning structure of the LCS, there just aren’t the people or expertise on board to maintain the MT 30 engines, this work needs to be contracted out.  Our assets in Singapore are ideally positioned to provide this service.

MT30 Engine Test, © Rolls-Royce plc, click for larger

RA:  So the Navy doesn’t do any sort of maintenance on these engines?

JM:  They do MINIMAL work.  It’s the day to day checking of filters, fluid levels, but once you get beyond that, they have to contract in a specialist.  Considering it’s only 40 sailors on board, and the broad range of equipment found on the LCS, it’s really the only practical option.

RA:  Historically, since the LCS program has been around, has the Rolls-Royce MT 30 engine worked out well?

JM:  It’s really a relatively low maintenance engine, and very little intervention required to keep it up and running.  You do have to perform the standard preventative maintenance activity though, and for that, you do need to bring on contract work to make that happen.

RA:  And it hasn’t been a problem getting contract help in from Singapore to get this work done?

JM:  Right now, the ship has moved from Milwaukee, to Norfolk, and now it’s home-based in San Diego.

RA:  Ok, so it hasn’t deployed yet?

JM:  It’s deployed, but it has deployed out of San Diego at this point.  The plan is, next year, she’ll go over to Singapore for an eight-month deployment, and that’ll be the first test of whether the vessel can be supported abroad.  We’re looking forward to doing what we can to make that successful.

Rolls Royce MT30

RA:  You touched on Rolls-Royce doing full scope work in the offshore community, how much work is being done by Rolls-Royce within the Naval community outside of engines?

JM:  Quite a bit.  Most US Navy ships have Rolls-Royce propulsion equipment, the old Bird-Johnson propellers, are part of Rolls-Royce, and with the LCS-5, we’ll be introducing a new axial-flow Rolls Royce water jet.  So all the LPDs, LHAs, Cruisers, Frigates, DDGs, DDG 1000s, CVNs, they all have Rolls-Royce propellers.  We’re doing the bulk of the service work for all the hub internals; the minor blade repair work is handled on-site by the Navy, and some of their contractors, but when it gets more complex, and they have to go into the internals of the propeller, all that work gets done at our factory in Walpole, Massachusetts.

Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard employees reattach a propeller to the Number 3 shaft of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) at Newport News, Va., on July 23, 2005. The ship has four brass propellers that are 22 feet in diameter and weigh 66,200 pounds. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Glen M. Dennis, U.S. Navy. (Released)

RA:  And these are Controllable Pitch Propellers (CPP)?

JM:  For the most part.  The DDG 1000 and the CVNs are fixed pitch.

RA:  The DDG 1000s are fixed pitch?

JM:  Because it’s electric-drive, you don’t need CPP.  The same goes for the CVNs as they are reactor steam driven.

RA:  And from what I hear, DDG 1000 will not have shrouded, nozzle-type propellers?

JM:  Right, exactly.  Although useful at slower speeds, the shroud increases the vessel drag at high speed.

RA:  It’s a quite a different mindset than the commercial industry.  It’s all about speed in the Navy, full go all the time.

JM:  There’s a growing concern in the Navy about not operating at full speed all the time and trying to conserve energy.  More and more, we’re trying to offer energy efficient solutions.  The DDG 1000 is a great example of an integrated electric power system because we have two large, 36 megawatt MT 30 engines, and two smaller, MT 5s that are 4 megawatts each, and so all of that actually goes into a single power island.  So you run the engines based on the most efficient way to provide the required power.  Gas turbines are most efficiently operated at full power, so you basically turn the engines on sequentially so that you’re able to operate most efficiently based on your operational profile.  Within that electrical power grid, you’ll pull off what you need for hotel load, combat systems, auxiliary, propulsion etc.

RA:  How fast can the ship go with both main engines down and using only the 4 MW auxiliary engines?

JM:  To be honest, that’s classified by the Navy but yes, the idea is that you can propel the ship using the smaller engines in a loiter-type scenario.

RA:  The cruise industry, and a number of other industries are looking at using DC power as a major onboard system.  I know that ABB has been pushing this idea fairly aggressively lately making points on how it would increase power efficiency and reduce the cabling which would both reduce weight and cost.  I was wondering if the Naval industry was looking at this?

JM:  Let me turn that over to my electrical expert here, Ryan Frommelt

RF:  So the Navy has what they call, the next generation, integrated propulsion system road map, and on that road map, DC is on there.  DC power is used on the Virginia-class submarine, and they have a very smart system with how they used their steam-turbine derived power.

The surface navy is trying to integrate some of that, and progress along the path to get there, and I think DC is on the path, high frequency AC is on the path, and it’s just a matter of how much they are willing to invest to get there, and what they will be able to do with it.

From a Navy perspective, I think a lot of the things they are faced with is that there are no new ships coming on line.  They have to work within DDG 51 and since DDG 51 uses a 450V 60Hz AC system, in order for a big step change into DC, you’re really looking at a new ship.

Since there are no new ships on the books, it’s kind of tough to push through those leapfrog technologies when you’re using that same platform.  There’s the Flight III platform, but it’s still a DDG 51-based design.

DC is on roadmap, and how quickly you can get to that checkpoint is a function of how much the Navy is willing to put forth, as well as the new platforms that may or may not be moved forward.

JM:  The last thing I really wanted to highlight was our recent joint venture with Daimler, where we’ve joined together to purchase Tognum, which is the parent company of MTU.  One of things that was missing from Rolls-Royce’s marine portfolio was a high speed diesel, and this will now give us access to the high speed diesel marketplace.  MTU also has a tremendous system integration capability that we think we can leverage to pull together the rest of the Rolls-Royce suite of products that can be put to effective use in naval applications.

RA:  Very nice meeting you today Jay, thanks for the opportunity to chat.