As part of “Marine Power & Propulsion” course at MIT, I explored a modification to the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer propulsion plant.  The ship in its existing plant configuration spends a significant amount of time annually at inefficient speeds for its four LM2500 propulsion gas turbines, using approximately 6 million gallons of fuel per year.

Replacing the existing engines with a pair of diesel engine for low speed operations and a pair of stronger gas turbine for reaching max speed allows the plant to operate more efficiently over its operational spectrum. The proposed design would save 1 million gallons of fuel annually per ship. These savings would need to be offset against installation and lifecycle logistics costs of two new engine types to determine if this a worthwhile investment for the Navy to pursue.