Page 38: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2, 2005)

38 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News recover manned and unmanned surface and sub-surface vehicles up to the size of an 11 m Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB). From its flight deck, X-Craft will be able to operate with two H-60 type helicopters or VTUAVs at a time.

The Sea Fighter's crew will consist of 16 Navy sailors and 10 Coast

Guardsmen.

GE & MTU: Powering the X-Craft

The LM2500 continues to be a suc- cessful performer for the U.S. Navy. GE has delivered over 600 (not including spare engines) LM2500 gas turbines to the U.S. Navy for a variety of combatant programs. The LM2500s power all of the US Navy's surface combatant ships plus AOE supply ships and Sealift ships.

Presently there are more than 2,000

LM2500 gas turbines operating world- wide, logging over 50 million hours in service. GE Transportation, at its

Evendale, Ohio facility, manufactures the LM2500 gas turbines.

GE continues to invest in the LM2500 and its entire LM family of gas turbines, spending more than $473 million over the past decade on research and devel- opment. Improvements include hot sec- tion materials upgrade and other compo- nent enhancements. These improve- ments have increased power capability and reliability, and helped keep the LMs on the cutting edge of gas turbine tech- nology.

GE and MTU have had a productive and successful working relationship dat- ing back to the 1970s. This partnership has made it possible for GE's LM1600,

LM2500 and LM2500+ gas turbines to be used alone or in combination with

MTU diesel engines from their full line of diesel engines. These reliable propul- sion system configurations are available to commercial and military marine cus-

Circle 207 on Reader Service Card

Navy

Sea Fighter (X-Craft) is a 1,200-ton, high-speed catamaran that is capable of moving at 50+ knots.

X-Craft Specifications

Displacement . . . . . . . . .950 metric tons (light ship)

Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262 ft. (79.8 m)

Beam, o.a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 ft (22 m)

Draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11.5 ft. (3.5 m)

Speed50 knots; 40 knots in Sea State 4 with active ride control

Power Plant . .2 x GE LM2500 Gas Turbine Engines 2 x MTU 16V 595 TE 90 Propulsion Diesels 4 x Kamewa 125SII Waterjets

Integrated Bridge SystemNorthrop Grumman's Sperry

Marine

Aircraft . . . . .(2) H-60 type helicopters or VTUAVs (Day VFR; Night NVD/NVG Compatible)

Armament . . . . . . .Force protection armaments only

Complement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16-26 core crew

Builder . .Nichols Brothers Boat Builders (Whidbey

Island, Wash.)

Homeport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .San Diego, Calif.

On different occasions, both Admiral Vern

Clark (Chief of Naval Operations) and the

Honorable Gordon R. England (Secretary of the Navy) visited the Nichols Brothers Boatyard and toured X-Craft while it was being built.

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