EnerSys Awarded Production Contract by US Navy for Nuclear Submarine Batteries
EnerSys , the world’s largest manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of industrial batteries, recently announced that its EnerSys Energy Products Inc. subsidiary has received an initial contract award from the US Navy to produce valve regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries using its proprietary thin plate pure lead (TPPL) technology.
This award represents 100% of the US Navy’s requirement under their 2007 solicitation for VRLA submarine batteries in continuation of their effort to retrofit the entire nuclear submarine fleet with VRLA batteries in place of the legacy flooded lead-acid batteries. This is the successful culmination of a multi-million dollar multi-year cost shared partnership between EnerSys and the US Navy.
EnerSys will produce the submarine battery at the company’s highly automated facility in Warrensburg, Missouri.
Sanjay Deshpande, EnerSys vice president of aerospace and defense, remarked, “This is the first of hopefully many contracts as the US Navy converts its fleet of approximately 70 nuclear submarines to VRLA batteries. EnerSys is qualified to supply batteries to all four classes of US Navy submarines. The production contract acknowledges the improvements in both product and process design achieved during our development partnership with the US Navy.”
