American Superconductor has announced that it has supplied critical components to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) Ship Engineering Station Philadelphia for a high temperature superconductor (HTS) degaussing coil system that has successfully completed initial electrical testing onboard the USS Higgins (DDG 76), an 8,000-ton Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
Powered by AMSC’s HTS wire and magnet cable technology, the coil system will undergo U.S. Navy sea trials over the next two years on the Higgins.Degaussing systems containing multiple tons of copper wire are utilized in most naval ships to cloak their magnetic signature, thereby making them much more difficult to be “seen” by magnetic sensors and magnetically activated mines. These systems are composed of a network of electrical cables installed around the circumference of a ship’s hull, running from the bow to the stern on both sides of the vessel. “The work on the Higgins represents a true leap ahead for the U.S. Navy magnetic silencing and HTS communities that takes advantage of two decades worth of research,” said ONR program manager George Stimak. “HTS degaussing brings with it a new capability in not only being able to perform the same functionality that legacy copper-based degaussing systems can accomplish but being able to do the same task in a much more efficient manner that is less invasive to the ship. It opens up the design trade space for the naval architect in planning out the degaussing system to meet the platform’s signature requirement. The Navy’s adoption of the technology is a result of many years of hard work in developing HTS wire and demonstrations funded by both the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy.” |
