Inquiry reveals UK's Type 45 destroyers are even less reliable in warm water

[Zarvan]

HMS Daring, the first Type 45, seen as it began sea trials in 2007. Source: Royal Navy
Senior defence industry officials revealed during testimony to a parliamentary inquiry on 7 June that the problems with the integrated electric propulsion (IEP) system on the Royal Navy's new Type 45 destroyers are more acute in warm environments such as the Gulf.
Rolls-Royce's Tomas Leahy claimed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) failed to specify that the Type 45s would have to operate in warm environments. "There was a specification for Type 45, the engine met that specification," he told the inquiry. "Are the conditions in the Gulf in line with that specification? No they are not, so the equipment is having to operate in far more arduous conditions than initially required by that specification."
"The operating profile considered at the time [the Type 45 was specified] was that there would not be repeated and continuous operations in the Gulf," BAE Sysyems Maritime Managing Director John Hudson said. "It was not designed explicitly or uniquely for operations in the Gulf."
He said that BAE had nevertheless attempted to design the ship so it would experience a "graceful degradation" of its performance at high temperatures, but then added that the exact opposite was happening.
"What we have found in the Gulf is that it takes the gas turbine generator bit into an area which is sub-optimal for the generator, and also we found that with the drive units that the cooling system created condensation within the drive units which caused faults and that caused electrical failures as well," he said. These electrical failures leave the Type 45s unable to operate their propulsion, sensor, or weapons systems.
Leahy suggested the problems would be experienced by all gas turbines, not just the Rolls-Royce WR-21 engines fitted to the Type 45. "It's not a fault of the WR-21. Even if it was a simple-cycle gas turbine it will still suffer the same fate in those circumstances, it's a law of physics."

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http://www.janes.com/article/61089/...stroyers-are-even-less-reliable-in-warm-water

 

[C130]

so why exactly has the LM-2500 not experience such issues for over 5 decades of operation in the Gulf region

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

An idiotic response by Rolls Royce and BAE. What did they expect? That an destroyer will be cooling the shores off Britain?
An naval ship must be capable of operation in any situation except ice covered seas. This is blatant twisting of requirements response by them.

 

[Blue Marlin]

so why exactly has the LM-2500 not experience such issues for over 5 decades of operation in the Gulf region

its the wr-21 engines the newer ships the qec and the type-26 will have the mt-30 instead.

here's the problem

The problem
The Type 45 uses a pioneering system called Integrated Electric Propulsion (IEP). There are many advantages associated with IEP, fuel efficiency, flexibility in locating the engines and a supposedly reduced maintenance and manning requirement. In basic terms, two WR-21 gas turbines (GTs) and two Wartsila 2MW diesel generators provide AC power for the motors that propel the ship as well as the power for the ships systems – weapons, sensors lighting etc. The WR-21 GTs were designed in an international partnership with Rolls Royce and Northrop Grumman Marine Systems. The turbines are of a sound design but have an intercooler-recuperator that recovers heat from the exhaust and recycles it into the engine, making it more fuel-efficient and reducing the ship’s thermal signature. Unfortunately the intercooler unit has a major design flaw and causes the GTs to fail occasionally. When this happens, the electrical load on the diesel generators can become too great and they ‘trip out’, leaving the ship with no source of power or propulsion.

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Whaaaaaa??

You mean you don't build your naval ships as icebreakers too?

I dont know to be honest Never seen Ice anywhere near Indian ocean. And I do not know if Indian Naval Designers design a ship with an scenario of travelling through ice. Norway obviously has to take that into account.