GE to Supply Gas Turbines to Australian Navy

GE Marine will supply ASC Shipbuilding, Adelaide, Australia, with six LM2500 gas turbines to power three Royal Australian Navy (RAN) advanced Air Warfare Destroyers (AWD).

Each Hobart class AWD will feature two LM2500s configured into a Combined Diesel and Gas turbine (CODAG) arrangement with two diesel engines. The vessels will be built at the ASC’s Osborne shipyard. The RAN’s new destroyers will use the same design developed by Navantia of Spain and used for the Spanish Navy’s F100 frigate program.

“This is the second advanced ship program in the last year for which the RAN selected the LM2500 gas turbines as the baseline propulsion system,” said Brien Bolsinger, GE Marine general manager, Evendale, Ohio. “Two LM2500 generator-sets will be used to power the RAN’s next-generation Landing Helicopter Deck amphibious ships. These vessels – to be named HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide -- will also use the LM2500 in a CODAG configuration, and will be capable of carrying 1,000 personnel, six helicopters and 150 vehicles.”

The LM2500 gas turbines for the AWD program will be manufactured at GE’s Evendale facility. The base and enclosure assemblies for the LM2500s will be manufactured by Thales Australia Limited, through a business component in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. Thales manufactures all of the LM2500 bases and enclosures for the United States Navy and international customers that select the U.S. Navy-configured propulsion module.

Two LM2500 engines will be delivered annually to ASC’s shipyard beginning in 2010 through 2012. The first of AWDs will be delivered to the RAN in late 2014, followed by the second and third ships in early 2016 and mid-2017, respectively.

The RAN currently operates 16 LM2500 gas turbines in two additional ship classes – the Adelaide and ANZAC class frigate programs.

(www.ge.com/marine)