Raytheon has been awarded two Phase-2 contracts under the ONR's (Office of Naval Research's ) CPCT (Compact Power-Conversion Technologies) program aimed to deliver better fuel economy and architectural flexibility for critical systems on future surface ships and submarines. "As the U.S. Navy develops the platforms and mission systems that ready our war fighters for requirements of the future, there's an increasing need to provide more efficient and more capable power systems," said Joe Biondi, VP of Advanced Technology for Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. "Our continued power-technology innovation supports our customers' long-term goals and ensures war fighters can leverage the most advanced technologies possible." The BDPC (bidirectional-power-converter) initiative develops high-density and high-efficiency power converters that enable new, more energy-efficient ship-power-system architectures. The modular, flexible BDPC interfaces with high power radar, energy storage, pulsed loads and motor drives. The BDPC reduces the total cost of ownership by reducing weight and volume by a factor of three, achieving efficiency of 96 to 98%. Additionally, the BDPC can provide power for multiple classes of ships and ensures graceful degradation by providing both built-in spares and redundancy. The PMC (Power Management Controller) enables a new generation of intelligent shipboard power control by optimizing performance across various systems. For example, the system can balance planned and unplanned pulse power loads by intelligently using all components in the power system. In addition, this capability can provide higher performance with an existing power system or minimize the equipment required when designing a new system. With such capabilities in place, ships might no longer require discrete energy storage for separate systems; power would be collectively stored, shared, and distributed as required for a given mission. These one-year programs for a BDPC and the PMC extend Raytheon's recent success in developing next-generation power technologies for naval systems. They will help to reduce critical footprint and manning on future naval platforms. Raytheon ONR
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