Navy, Marines Want More Energy Storage to Supply Power Hungry Warships, Bases
Gidget Fuentes
January 29, 2025 3:57 PM
SAN DIEGO – The Department of Defense last month issued a small contract for a Navy project to develop and provide a modular energy storage system for its newest vessels including its all-electric DDG-1000 class of surface combatants.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based Defense Innovation Unit, working with PEO Ships, awarded the contract, worth $14.2 million, to Siemens Energy for a prototype system called LOC-NESS, or Long Operation Combatant Naval Energy Storage System. According to DIU, “This modularized system is intended to be scalable and compatible with existing and future needs of Navy maritime platforms.”
The work will be done on the Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) — LOC-NESS Monsoor— Andrew Higier, the energy portfolio director at Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) said during a panel at the WEST 2025 conference co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and AFCEA.
“The Navy approached us about replacing one of the weapons systems on the DDG-1000 with large-scale energy storage. That’s an electric ship. So we said, yeah, we think we could do that,” Higier said, noting “it was the fastest solicitation-to-award in my portfolio,” with the contract awarded in just over a month.
https://news.usni.org/2025/01/29/navy-marines-want-more-energy-storage-to-supply-power-hungry-warships-bases