Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2023)

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NSMV 1: EM mpire State VII is the ? rst in a series of ? ve Na- that there are two separate engine rooms with a pair of diesel tional Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV), generators in each, both feeding dual high voltage switch- built at Philly Shipyard, powered by Wabtec Tier boards and dual propulsion motors.

VI diesel engines. The project to design, build and Anchoring the platform are Wabtec’s 16V250MDC, EPA

Edeliver the NSMV series is one of the most exciting Tier 4, IMO Tier III marine diesel engines, a total of 20 pow- shipbuilding programs in the U.S. – a government shipbuilding erplants – four per ship – designed to provide the power gen- project leveraging commercial shipbuilding ef? ciencies. eration for the ships’ electric grid, including the power and

Five ships will be built for ? ve maritime academies – Em- propulsion system. The marine diesel engines plus accessories pire State VII for SUNY Maritime; Patriot State for Massa- were delivered to Wabtec channel partner Cummins Sales & chusetts Maritime Academy; State of Maine for Maine Mari- Service, who in turn package the engines into marine gensets time Academy; Lone Star State for Texas A&M Maritime for the ? ve ships. The cumulative package is delivered by GE

Academy; and Golden State for California State University Power Conversion.

Maritime Academy – and each had input on the design, from “It’s built from a redundancy for the safe return to port fea- the size and con? guration of classrooms and berthing areas, ture, but it also helps for training because we’ll be able to all the way down to the mess deck. take off equipment 100% of? ine for teaching,” said Captain

Seafarer training is an ample mix of centuries of traditional Morgan McManus the Ship’s Master. “I think more impor- seafaring skills melded with new and emerging technologies tantly, the engineering students are going to get such a great aimed at making a dif? cult and potentially dangerous job more working knowledge of power management systems and the ef? cient. The technology on this new series of ships is the computerization of the machinery, learning how reliant and show stopper, and in the case of Empire State VII the upgrade how integral computer software is to engine management and is radical, as it replaces a ship that is more than 60 years old. power management,” which is what they’re going to see when

Starting in the machinery space, Empire State VII has a they go out into the job market. modern diesel-electric power plant, built with redundancy in Getting schooled on the new system is a process for the

Photo above courtesy Captain Morgan McManus; Photo next page Greg Trauthwein 28 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • December 2023

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