GE Marine’s LM2500 marine engines will power the United States Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to be named USS Cincinnati (LCS 20). The ships two engines will be manufactured at GE’s Evendale, Ohio facility.
“We are excited to learn that the U.S. Navy has adopted GE Aviation’s hometown as the moniker for the LCS 20, given that the USS Cincinnati will be propelled by GE’s reliable LM2500 engines to be built locally, just a few minutes-drive from downtown Cincinnati,” said Brien Bolsinger, Vice President, Marine Operations, GE Marine.
Each LM2500 engine produces over 29,500 horsepower, propelling the ship to speeds in excess of 40 knots or 46 miles per hour.
LCS 20 will be the fifth ship in naval history to be named Cincinnati with the first playing an integral part in the Civil War; the second enforcing neutrality laws during the Cuban Revolution and seeing service during the Spanish-American War; the third acting as a patrol and flagship during World War II; and the fourth, a Los Angeles class submarine, commissioned in 1978 and serving during the Cold War.
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship with three types of mission packages: surface warfare, mine countermeasures, and anti-submarine warfare. The LM2500 engines for the LCS are considered “aeroderivative” which means they are based on the jet engines used on the Boeing 747 and 767, among others. In fact, one of world’s largest transatlantic luxury liner the Queen Mary 2 is also equipped with LM2500 gas turbines. Queen Mary 2 has been operating for over 10 years and has travelled three times the round-trip distance between the Earth and the moon.
GE has delivered over 1,300 LM engines for marine duty, including 90 for commercial ships. LMs also powers over 500 vessels in 33 world navies. The U.S. Navy alone has a fleet of more than 700 GE LM2500-family engines, making it GE Marine’s largest customer worldwide.
The USS Cincinnati and others in the Independence-class LCS program will be built by Austal USA at is Mobile, Alabama, facility. GE will provide 20 LM2500 gas turbines for the Austal USA LCS program, part of a contract for up to 10 ships over a five-year period.
GE Marine, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of marine solutions, systems and services, including aeroderivative gas turbines ranging from 6,000 to 70,275 shaft horsepower, 4.5 MW to 52 MW. For more information, visit ge.com/marine.