Rolls-Royce delivers advanced new water jets for the latest US Navy littoral combat ship
Rolls-Royce has delivered the new and advanced Axial Mk1 water jet for the latest Freedom-variant of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class, currently under construction for the US Navy.
According to Rolls-Royce, Axial Mk1 waterjets are "very power dense", delivering "more cavitation-free performance for their size and power than any other water jet".
"At 22MW of power, a single water jet of this scale can move over 1.8 million litres of seawater per minute. Four of these waterjets will propel the LCS at speeds in excess of 40 knots," said Rolls-Royce in a statement.
The delivery marks the successful completion of the Office of Naval Research's (ONR) Future Naval Capabilities (FNC) program for "Compact, High Power Density Waterjets". This new water jet will now be standard equipment for all future Freedom variants of the Littoral Combat Ships supplied to the US Navy by Lockheed Martin.
Don Roussinos, president of Rolls-Royce's Naval Marine division, said: "It is exciting to see this product transition from research to production and delivery. We have been working closely with ONR since 2007 on this project, to ensure that the technology hurdles were overcome."
The culmination of a teaming between industry, ONR, the Naval Surface Warfare Center – Carderock Division, and the LCS Program Office, the new water jets are produced in the United States, with primary manufacturing activity at Rolls-Royce facilities in Walpole, Massachusetts and Pascagoula, Mississippi.