Article Posted on : - Jan 17, 2011

The first US Navy Littoral Combat Ship, Freedom (LCS 1).

LONDON (BNS): Rolls-Royce has bagged its largest ever marine naval surface ship contract to supply gas turbines and water jets for ten of the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) LCS programme.

Under the contract, each LCS will be equipped with two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines powering four large water jets, enabling the vessels to reach speeds in excess of 40 knots.

Rolls-Royce is already supplying propulsion equipment on the first two Lockheed Martin vessels.

“The Rolls-Royce equipment, including the MT30 gas turbines and water jets, combine to give an effective and efficient propulsion system perfectly suited for these innovative, highly-manoeuvrable, state-of-the-art ships, “Andrew Marsh, Rolls-Royce, President said in a company release.

The MT30 is derived from Rolls-Royce aero engine technology, building on over 45 million hours of operating experience and reliability. It also has the highest power density of any marine gas turbine - a key factor in naval propulsion where delivering a high power output in a compact space is essential.

The MT30 is the latest development of Rolls-Royce marine gas turbines and has also been selected for the UK Royal Navy’s new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers and the US Navy’s DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyer programme.