GE Marine to supply gas turbines for Pakistan Navy’s MILGEM corvettes

GE Marine has secured a contract to deliver LM2500 marine gas turbines to power Pakistan Navy’s new MILGEM multipurpose corvettes.

The contract was awarded by Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik Ve Ticaret (STM), the main propulsion system integrator for the ships.

As agreed, GE will manufacture the gas turbines at its Evendale facility in Ohio, US.

GE Marine Marine Operations vice-president Kris Shepherd said: “We are delighted to provide the Pakistan Navy with our proven LM2500 gas turbine to power these new MILGEM corvettes.

“Our LM2500 gas turbines are reliably logging operating hours onboard the Turkish Navy’s four MILGEM corvettes, the first of which was commissioned in 2011.”

In July 2018, the Pakistan Navy awarded a contract to Turkish defence contractor Askeri Fabrika ve Tersane İşletme (ASFAT) for four MILGEM corvettes. Two of these ships will be made in Turkey and the remaining two in Pakistan.

All MILGEM ships’ propulsion system feature one LM2500 gas turbine in a combined diesel and gas turbine configuration with two diesel engines. The total propulsion power is 31,600KW.

GE Marine has delivered 24 LM2500 turbines for the Turkish Navy’s Barbaros and Gabya class frigates and 1,200 units overall for 39 international navies and several industrial applications globally.

The marine gas turbine business is a part of GE Aviation.

Last month, GE’s Power Conversion business received a contract to deliver an energy management and electric propulsion package for the new Combat Support Ship (CSS) in use at Royal Netherlands Navy.