Stop us if you’ve had a laptop and heard this refrain before: your battery draws down when not being used. If it’s recharged, it may “remember” the level it was at and can’t be brought back to full capacity. The maximum level of charge also keeps dropping. This means more frequent battery replacements if you want them to be of much use. Turns out the US Navy has heard this one too, only the NiCad batteries weren’t in laptops. They were in F-5 “aggressor” aircraft at Top Gun, powering the inertial navigation system and emergency wingtip speed brakes on EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft, running fire suppression and emergency exit lighting on H-53 helicopters, and offering last-chance backup for items like aircraft flight-control computers in case the main engine-driven generator should fail.
On the H-53 heavy lift helicopters, for example, 1 in 12 NiCad batteries failed every month because of poor design. Constant charging, maintenance to remove “memory effect,” and replacement was taking a costly toll in batteries. At 37,000 hours a year for the H-53 fleet, it was also taking a heavy toll on maintenance time. Something had to be done – and NAVAIR’s Propulsion and Power Department had an idea…
DARPA’s “Tango Bravo” project, aims to break a number of fundamental submarine design constraints, and create much smaller submarines via breakthrough technologies. In contrast, the Concept Formulation (CONFORM) contract is aimed at a more evolutionary set of improvements in manufacturability, maintainability, producibility, reliability, manning, survivability, hull integrity, performance, structural, weight/margin, stability, arrangements, machinery systems, acoustics, hydrodynamics, ship control, logistics, human factors, materials, weapons handling and stowage, submarine safety, and affordability of current and future submarine platforms; which can be applied to current and future submarine designs.
If all options under CONFORM were exercised, the program’s potential value was $78.5 million. Contracts under this banner include…
Alion Science and Technology in Chicago, IL received a $9.8 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract for research and development activities associated with the development of Integrated Power Systems Advanced Modules and Conceptual Engineering/Ship Implementation. The Contractor will develop shipboard electrical system architectures and characterize Next Generation Integrated Power System components. Work will be performed in Annapolis, MD and is expected to be completed by January 2013. Contract funds in the amount of $162,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via Broad Agency Announcement; 68 white papers were received, 19 proposals were requested, and 18 awards have been made. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC is the contracting activity (N00024-08-C-4201).
That’s a lot of activity. Why so much? Part of the reason is the strong trend, in the US Navy and in the rest of the world, toward all-electric ships that replace all steam powered, hydraulically powered, or pneumatically/mechanically powered components with electrically-driven components. These components, and the propulsion drive, would be powered as a single pool by a single set of generators linked to the ship’s turbines. The result would be a ship that is quieter, easier to maintain (with additional help from the F-35 program’s ‘intelligent wiring’ advances), has more internal space available, and uses less fuel. The cruise ship industry has led the transition toward all electric ships, the new T-AKE cargo ships employ a modified version of those advances, and the DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class destroyers/ light cruisers would be the first American ship with all-electric drive and fully integrated power management. Meanwhile, research into tougher electronics that can take advantage of this power continues, as does more overtly offensive research around electro-magnetic weapons like rail guns. See the NDIA’s “All-Electric Ship Could Begin to Take Shape By 2012” for additional background.
