Development and Testing of the Hybrid Electric Drive Program for the Navy’s DDG 51 Class Ships

This paper will discuss the development and testing of an electric drive option designed for the propulsion system of the US Navy’s DDG 51 Class ships. It will briefly explain the history of the Hybrid Electric Drive (HED) program, including that of its predecessor, Proof of Concept (PoC), and the HED’s planned shipboard installation schedule. Operating at lower ship speeds, in a range where the currently installed propulsion gas turbines are less fuel efficient, the HED is expected to increase the ship’s fuel economy, allowing the ship to remain on station accomplishing its mission for a longer period of time. This paper will discuss how the gas turbine propulsion system, in concert with the HED, will be used to provide the most fuel efficient drive combination for various operating scenarios. Also covered will be a description of the major stakeholders involved in the HED’s development and implementation along with some of the constraints and challenges that were encountered in the testing phase of the program, both at the OEM facilities and at the US Navy’s Land Based Engineering Site (LBES) in Philadelphia PA. Planned fuel economy testing results obtained at the LBES facility will also be presented, intended to determine an estimate of the fuel savings that can be expected when the system is first placed in service on USS TRUXTUN (DDG 103) July 2018.