Office of Naval Research tasks Raytheon to develop new power architectures for surface ships and submarines
NewsOctober 10, 2012
TEWKSBURY, Mass. Raytheon won two Phase 2 contracts under the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR’s) Compact Power Conversion Technologies (CPCT) program, which looks to improve fuel economy and architectural flexibility on critical mission systems fir future surface ships and submarines. The one-year programs for a Bi-Directional Power Converter and a Power Management Controller will help to reduce equipment footprint and personnel on future naval platforms.
The Bi-Directional Power Converter (BDPC initiative looks to develop high density and efficiency power converters that will enable new, more energy efficient ship power system architectures. The BDPC will interface with high power radar, energy storage, motor drives, and pulsed loads. The BDPC cuts down on the total cost of ownership by reducing weight and volume by a factor of three, all while achieving an efficiency of 96-98 percent. The BDPC also can provide power for multiple classes of ships and ensures graceful degradation by providing built-in spares and redundancy.
The Power Management Controller will provide intelligent shipboard power control by optimizing performance across various systems. For example, the system could balance planned and unplanned pulse power loads by intelligently utilizing all components in the power system. The capability also can provide higher performance with an existing power system or reduce the equipment required when designing a new system. As a result ships may no longer need discrete energy storage for separate systems; power would then be collectively stored, shared, and distributed as required for a given mission.
