Chapter 1589 The mysterious supplier that cannot be revealed

"Report!" The voice of the communications staff sounded, "Received the preliminary acoustic assessment briefing sent back by the New Mexico!"

The exercise missions assigned to the surface ships did not include anti-submarine operations, so the New Mexico could surface relatively freely and use radio to communicate.

Anyway, neighboring countries like Cuba and Mexico don’t have any decent anti-submarine capabilities.

Russian submarines have not been near the east coast for more than 20 years.

"Put the data part up."

Roughhead ordered tersely.

Soon, a sonar detection result appeared on the big screen in the command center.

At the edge of the target sea area, the New Mexico used the AN/BQQ-10 sonar system to collect and analyze passive acoustic signals from participating surface ships.

Preliminary results show that when sailing at a high speed of more than 30 knots, the stable detection distance for Doohan is about 1.8 to 2.1 times that of the Duncan.

As for the Vella Gulf, it is an old ship that has been in service for nearly 20 years. It has suffered considerable wear and tear in all aspects, and its noise level is even worse.

This data is like a huge rock thrown into calm water.

A huge wave was set off in the command center, especially in the hearts of the two senators.

"Even at high speeds, the main noise source of the Duncan is still concentrated on the two WR-21 gas turbines, which have a higher noise frequency and decay faster in the seawater medium."

The staff officer at another seat began to report and analyze the reasons:

"In addition to the gas turbine, the mechanical reduction gearbox of the Doohan will generate significant low-frequency line spectrum noise and broadband noise. This low-frequency sound wave travels farther in the water and is easier to be captured by the sonar system. Especially during its acceleration and deceleration process, the transient noise characteristics generated by the change of gear meshing state are particularly obvious."

After the report was read, the command center fell into a brief silence.

This result was not surprising at all to insiders, but it was not surprising to the two congressmen.

They don't understand military affairs, but they can understand numbers.

"In fact," Roughead added, "compared to the impact noise of a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine, the overall noise level of a gas turbine power plant is already relatively low."

These words appear to be an attempt to make amends, but in reality they are adding fuel to the fire.

Sure enough, Senator Paul Wicker's face had changed from ugly to livid.

Senator Jack Reed took off his glasses, rubbed his brow wearily, and then put them back on.

In fact, there are more carefully arranged contents in the exercise plan of the Norfolk base.

For example, long-term air defense alert drills.

This is to demonstrate the absolute superiority of the IFEP system in power supply.

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is only powered by three auxiliary gas turbines to provide 7.5 megawatts of power on board. When its powerful phased array radar is needed to scan at maximum power, it can only open two diagonal arrays in turn, and must rely on the radars of other ships in the formation to fill in the blind spots in order to achieve complete regional air defense coverage.

The Type 45 destroyer equipped with the IFEP system can use its main power gas turbine to drive propulsion while also providing almost "unlimited" power to shipboard equipment through powerful generator sets. In theory, all radar and electronic warfare systems can operate at full power without any worries.

Of course, the Type 45 air defense equipment is too shabby. It has a luxurious power supply configuration but cannot be fully converted into equivalent air defense combat power.

So this subject was arranged at the end as "after-meal dessert".

But at this moment, looking at the eyes of the two senators in the VIP seats, Admiral Roughead knew that the subsequent "performance" had lost most of its meaning.

The impact brought by the direct comparison between high-speed navigation and acoustic stealth, especially the acoustic report from the New Mexico, was shocking enough for the two VIPs and enough to achieve the effect he wanted.

"Lisa," Admiral Roughead turned his head slightly and whispered to Rear Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Director of the Naval Operations Staff, who was sitting in a row behind him, "The subsequent subjects... proceed as planned."

Franchetti nodded in understanding.

Admiral Roughead immediately stood up, straightened his uniform, and said to the two senators, "Your Excellencies, I'm sorry to be with you for a moment. I need to deal with some urgent exercise coordination matters."

He needed to temporarily leave this command center that was about to be heated up by the anger of the congressmen.

……

Ten minutes later, the admiral appeared at the door of a relatively secluded lounge outside the base.

When I opened the door, Thomas Elginbridge, President of Rolls-Royce North America and Head of Powertrain Business Unit, had been waiting there for a long time.

"Mr. Elginbridge," Admiral Roughead closed the door and went straight to the point without any greetings. His tone was filled with satisfaction that the plan was going smoothly. "So far, the plan has been going very smoothly. The performance of the Duncan is perfect, especially in terms of high-speed response and acoustic characteristics. It has left the VIPs with... an extremely deep impression."

Elginbridge's eyes sparkled with excitement; he certainly knew what "extremely impressed" meant.

"This is great!" He could not hide his excitement. "Rolls-Royce will fully support the subsequent construction plan of the Zumwalt-class Flight II and ensure the reliable supply and technical support of the power system!"

However, Elginbridge's excitement was only fleeting.

Then he was covered by a trace of concern: "But the efficiency of Bath Iron Works... I mean, building three Zumwalts at the same time has stretched them to the limit, and the subsequent other ships..."

The American shipbuilding industry has also declined, but Bath Iron Works is undoubtedly the most declining one.

Roughhead waved his hand:

"Don't worry about this. Flight II is a new project independent of the current Zumwalt class. It should be jointly built by Bath Iron Works and Ingalls, just like the Burke class."

Ingles has always performed better in construction efficiency, which can undoubtedly effectively disperse risks and speed up progress.

Elginbridge's expression was visibly relaxed, and he praised: "This is indeed a pragmatic plan."

The bottleneck in the shipyard's production capacity that he was most worried about seemed to no longer be a problem, so he asked:

"So, Your Excellency, when do you expect the Flight II model to officially start construction? We need to coordinate the supply chain and engineering resources in advance."

Roughhead pondered for a moment. "The Flight II model is generally a plan with reduced price and configuration. The biggest change is the radar system. However, the DBR dual-band radar that was originally planned to be highly integrated has also been disassembled, so there are no technical obstacles... It can even be said to be a mature solution that can be obtained immediately."

"The split radar solution is indeed more robust and more in line with budget constraints." Elginbridge expressed his understanding, "Rolls-Royce will ensure that the design changes and interface work of the power pack are followed up in a timely manner."

Just when Elginbridge thought the conversation was coming to a successful conclusion, Admiral Roughead suddenly threw out another question.

"Thomas, after the Duncan docked two days ago, I boarded the ship for a brief tour... I found that the layout of the Duncan's power compartment is different from what I saw on the Courageous before..."

He leaned forward slightly, his tone inquiring:

“Is the excellent performance of the USS Duncan in this exercise, especially its stability under extreme working conditions, closely related to this redesigned power cabin?”

Elginbridge's heart tightened slightly, but he kept a frank expression on his face.

"There is indeed a connection, Your Excellency Admiral." He admitted frankly, "When we upgraded the Duncan, we not only installed the key condensate control module, but also optimized the layout design of the power cabin. By reducing the bends in the pipes and optimizing the cooling airflow path, the overall heat dissipation efficiency was improved."

“However, the core function of this optimized design is to improve the working environment and increase the performance ceiling. It does not directly affect the function of the MCM itself - that is, to prevent surging and flameout caused by wet compression under certain working conditions, nor does it change the most critical core reliability indicators of the power system.”

Admiral Roughead nodded thoughtfully, obviously very interested in the effect of the power cabin optimization:

"So, can this optimized power cabin design also be transplanted to our future Zumwalt Flight II model?"

"Technically... it is completely feasible, Your Excellency Admiral." Elginbridge gave an affirmative answer, but then threw out a practical obstacle. "However, this involves in-depth coordination with the contractor of the ship's overall design, and evaluating the impact on a series of factors such as the hull structure, pipeline layout, weight center of gravity, cabin space allocation, etc.... It requires time and additional engineering investment."

He subtly hinted at the crux of the matter:

"You have to pay extra."