EVENDALE, Ohio. GE Marine announced it has renewed a long-term, customized service agreement (CSA) with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The CSA covers an operating fleet of 24 GE LM2500 aeroderivative marine gas turbines plus spare engines used to power Halifax class frigates.
According to Kris Shepherd, Vice President, General Manager, GE Marine, Evendale, Ohio, “GE has been providing the RCN with 20 years of customized service for their LM2500 engines, yielding significant performance and operational advantages in terms of improved reliability and the high availability of the gas turbines to power their surface combatants.”
“GE builds on its relationship of trust and reliability with the RCN, dating back to the early 1990s. The CSA provides the Navy with high availability of the RCN’s LM2500 fleet over the initial five years of contract support, as well as helping to promote supplier and skills development in Canada. The five-year contract comes with renewal and sustainment options until the eventual decommissioning of the Halifax class frigates,” Shepherd added.
Other benefits of this CSA include formal and on-the-job training with GE and Navy personnel working side by side to maintain the LM2500 fleet, and assistance with procurement, inspection, technical support and materials inventory management.
Backed by GE’s extensive network of global field service technicians, the RCN has access to GE services located throughout the globe, providing immediate onsite technical support 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week. Similar to the original contract, the scope of the renewed contract includes:
- Repair, overhaul and engineering support
- Parts warehousing and inventory management (including spare engines, supply of spare parts and replenishment of inventory)
- Field service representative support (home port and deployed)
- Support of naval engineering school training curriculum for on-engine and equipment maintenance
- Operational level maintenance
- Configuration management
- Supply and distribution of technical manuals
Customized agreements provide direct access to GE’s global inventory of parts and spare engines, and the ability to tap into GE’s worldwide service and support expertise such as training, maintenance, repair and overhaul services — all on an as-needed basis. With a CSA, navies can realize the full potential for their critical propulsion gas turbines while balancing performance and risk, along with predictable costs and less administrative oversight.
