Powering the fleet: all-electric ship could begin to take shape by 2012.

• Author: Wagner, Breanne
• Position: FUTURE NAVY

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AS PART OF AN AMBITIOUS technology plan for the Navy fleet of the future, the Office of Naval Research is exploring ways to power all-electric ships.

The Navy wants to develop these ships to make more efficient use of on-board power and to cut fuel use. The technology will also help meet future requirements for high-power weapons such as the electromagnetic gun, high power microwave and high energy lasers, said John Pazik, director of the ship systems and engineering division at ONR.

The all-electric ship effort is still in its infancy. ONR plans to roll out new power systems by fiscal year 2012, said Richard Carlin, head of ONR'S sea warfare and weapons division. "At this point there's no acquisition, so it's more of a technology push."

The program is known as the next-generation integrated power system (NGIPS). It takes electric propulsion technology and combines it with other energy efficient power systems throughout a ship. "We're starting this process of thinking how we map out what the future electric Naval force is going to be," Pazik told National Defense.

For example, some ships use auxiliary systems that are steam powered, hydraulically powered, or pneumatically powered. Converting those systems to electrical power and combining them with electric drive propulsion would produce an all-electric ship.

Analysts predict that electric technology will have many benefits.

"Electric drive offers significant anticipated benefits for U.S. Navy ships in terms of reducing ship life-cycle cost, increasing ship stealthiness, payload, survivability and power," wrote Congressional Research Service analyst Ronald O'Rourke in a report, "Electric-Drive Propulsion for U.S. Navy Ships."

Today, most military vessels use mechanical drive. These systems convert the engine's high-speed revolutions per minute (RPMs) to low speed RPMs using a set of gears, O'Rourke said. Ships with mechanical drive systems actually have two sets of engines. One set is used for ship propulsion. A second and separate set, connected to generators, is used to create electricity for all of the electrically powered equipment on the ship.

With an electric drive, a generator converts the engine's high speed RPMs into electricity. Ships with such a system can be designed so that a single set of engines produces a common pool of electricity for use by the ship's propulsion and non-propulsion systems.

The Navy first broached the technology in January 2000 when...