GE in Evendale to build Navy ship engines

GE’s Marine Solutions division said 40 LM2500 marine gas turbines will power the Navy’s next-generation of DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

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The Navy awarded firm construction contracts to Huntington Ingalls Industries (for production of six ships) and Bath Iron Works (four ships) with options for additional ships, GE said in a release.

GE has already provided over 300 LM2500 gas turbines for the U.S. Navy’s existing fleet of Arleigh Burke destroyers. The LM2500 modules will use a GE lightweight composite that “offers significant performance advantages over a steel design in terms of weight, noise, access and life-cycle costs,” GE said.

GE and GE Aviation are huge employers in Ohio and the Dayton area. Considered Ohio’s largest manufacturing employer, GE Aviation makes commercial and military jet engines and parts and has more than 9,000 employees in Southwest Ohio, including its plant in Evendale.

The GE Aviation EPISCenter in Dayton researches electrical power in aviation uses. There are about 335 GE Aviation employees in Vandalia and about 1,600 total employees at three Dayton-area sites — including Unison Industries Dayton in Beavercreek and TDI-GE Aviation, also in Vandalia.