Yahoo Finance Rolls-Royce engines to power Japan’s new fleet of naval destroyers
Rolls-Royce has secured a multimillion-pound contract to supply engines for a new class of Japanese warship.
The British engineering giant confirmed on Thursday it will provide a propulsion machine for Tokyo’s planned Aegis system equipped vessels (ASEVs).
Each of the Japanese ships will have a propulsion system powered by two of Rolls’s MT30 engines.
The pair of destroyers will help to defend Japan from ballistic missiles carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads, amid concerns about China’s military buildup and rocket launches by North Korea.
Rolls makes cores for the MT30 engines in Derby and assembles the final products at its defence campus in Bristol.
The engines are already used by Japan’s Mogami-class of stealth frigates, the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and Type 26 frigates, and the US Navy’s Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers and Freedom-class littoral combat ships.
Sam Cameron, senior vice president for defence at Rolls-Royce, said: “We’re delighted the MT30 has once again been chosen to power the country’s vessels further reinforcing our long and successful history with Japan.
“MT30 is powering many of the world’s most advanced platforms – including the [Mogami-class] frigate programme – due to its power and propulsion providing shipbuilders and system designers with new options, choices and the ability to futureproof.
“We look forward to continuing to build on our relationship with Japan and grow the footprint of the MT30 globally.”
The pair of ASEVs being built for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force will act as ballistic missile defence warships, replacing a previously planned ground-based system.
They will be equipped with the American-made Aegis combat system, named after the shield wielded by the god Zeus in Greek mythology.
The advanced system, which has also been adopted by Australian, South Korean, Norwegian and Spanish navies, uses computers and radar to track and destroy airborne and sea-based targets, including short to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
Japan’s ASEVs are being built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which will take delivery of the Rolls propulsion system and install it on the warships.
Rolls has said it hopes for the MT30 to become “the dominant engine of choice across the Pacific Rim”. It is now used in ships operated by the American, Japanese, Australian and Korean navies.
