USN orders shipboard energy storage system from DRS
Future laser-equipped USN vessels will require a different kind of onboard power storage system. (Image: USNI/Lockheed Martin)
More efficient and adaptable onboard energy storage is required to cope with the new generation of power-hungry weapon systems and sensors aboard USN vessels.
DRS Naval Power Systems is to design, build, test and deliver an LRIP multi-application shipboard energy magazine for the USN, the DoD announced on 22 April.
Work on the baseline $24.46 million contract from Naval Sea Systems Command (worth up to $72.76 million with options) is expected to be completed by April 2027.
The energy magazine is intended to provide mission-adaptable flexibility for future and existing ship classes and weapons systems, by separating the interface between power electronics and batteries.
As envisaged by the USN, the energy magazine is a common, modular, scalable family of power conversion modules with a closely coupled energy storage subsystem used across multiple mission systems, including high-power pulsed weapons and sensors as well as an uninterruptable power supply capability.
In its January 2019 RfI for the energy magazine, the USN stated that it is ‘interested in the applications for higher-voltage silicon carbide (SiC) wideband gap devices and how they improve power electronics performance.’
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