Huntington Ingalls Industries has finished constructing the shell of the US Navy’s Virginia-class submarine, Washington (SSN 787). This will be the 14th Virginia-class vessel delivered to the Navy and the seventh vessel of its kind to be delivered by Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding Division.
Rolls-Royce has completed its delivery of twin fixed-pitch propellers especially made for installation on the US Navy's surface fighter, the future USS Zumwalt, to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works. Each NAVSEA-designed propeller weighs 60,000 pounds each and were cast and machined in Pascagoula, Mississippi at the Rolls-Royce facility. The new delivery serves as the milestone of completion for the power and propulsion system delivery from the Rolls-Royce corporation. The company has already completed a delivery of two MT30 main turbine generator sets (MTGs) along with two RR4500 auxiliary turbine generator sets (ATGs). These generators combined offer a total of 78MW for total ship power.
The US Navy has contracted GE Marine for the power plants of its newest littoral combat ship, dubbed the USS Cincinnati.
The United States Navy has recently began the engineering of development tests for modified Longbow Hellfire missiles. These missiles are being developed to be used on littoral combat ships (LCS) in order to increase the lethality of such combat ships. The Hellfire missile system, known as the surface-to-surface missile module (SSMM), is anticipated to be ready to be deployed and fully integrated by late 2017.
In accordance with a contract awarded to them in 2010, Austal, a global defense prime contractor and a manufacturer and designer of commercial and defense ships, is responsible for fulfilling a $3.5 billion block-buy contract for 10 variant littoral combat ships. These littoral combat ships (LCS) are quick, highly maneuverable, and are networked combat ships which are the first of a new family of surface ships for the United States Navy. They were designed to meet the vital requirement for shallow draft vessels to function in coastal waters in order to counter the threats of quiet diesel submarines and coastal mines.
