Reducing environmental impacts - Defence
The need to curb emissions and noise are important issues in the design of powerplants for defence products. This is because of the continuing requirement to improve product efficiency, reduce observability and maximise operational performance. The growing demand for long range unmanned reconnaissance vehicles such as the Rolls-Royce powered Global Hawk is encouraging the development of fuel efficient technologies for a new range of small powerplants.
Much of the technology we are developing to reduce emissions from civil powerplants is being applied to our defence products - particularly aerodynamic materials and manufacturing improvements. The Rolls-Royce fan system for the Joint Strike Fighter uses our Trent lightweight hollow fan blade technology integrated into a novel, one-piece fan structure for maximum aerodynamic efficiency and minimum weight.
There are more weight and space options in marine and ground based defence powerplants than in aircraft and this allows us to introduce novel system designs. The WR-21 gas turbine, the most efficient marine gas turbine in the world, developed for the new UK Type 45 destroyer, uses both intercooling and recuperation within the engine to increase efficiency and reduce fuel consumption by recycling the heat which would otherwise be wasted.
Rolls-Royce also designs and builds nuclear power plants for the Royal Navy's submarine fleet. Such knowledge will be relevant in the event of the civil nuclear industry developing in response to concerns about climate change.