DIU Selects Vendor for Long Operation Combatant Naval Energy Storage System (LOC-NESS) in Support of U.S. Navy

DIU · DIU CSO · DIU

AI-Readiness Score

12/25

Pathway Speed

4/5

Timeline Realism

2/5

Problem Framing

3/5

AI / ML Fit

0/5

Award + Transition

3/5

Posted December 13, 2024

Description

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in partnership with Program Executive Office Ships (PEO Ships) awarded a contract to prototype and integrate a large energy storage system on a Navy platform. December 13, 2024 (Mountain View, CA)— Emerging U.S. Navy platforms need increased power and energy production, storage, and distribution for a range of maritime applications and threats. These upgrades will require increases to on-board storage capacity and power conversion systems. To solve this challenge, PEO Ships has partnered with DIU on itsLong Operation Combatant Naval Energy Storage System(LOC-NESS) project to procure a large form-factor maritime energy storageprototypefor installation on a Navy combatant platform. Following its competitive commercial solutions opening (CSO) evaluation process, DIU awarded a contract to Siemens Energy to develop a militarized solution based on its commercially available BlueVault Energy Storage System technology. The prototype will also help meet Department of Defense supply chain requirements. Siemens Energy will partner with another commercial vendor to ruggedize the battery cabinets and power management controls to meet shipboard specifications. The technology solution aims to enable vessel engine efficiency, decrease fuel consumption and emissions, increase operational endurance, and reduce lifecycle cost to shipboard equipment. This modularized system is intended to be scalable and compatible with existing and future needs of Navy maritime platforms. “DIU helped NAVSEA achieve critical mass in adding multi-megawatt hour capacity to a Navy platform,” said James Dempsey, Team Ships Director for Science & Technology. “This project propels us toward the next generation of power and energy systems for the Fleet.” The LOC-NESS effort is supported by PEO Ships’ Science & Technology Directorate, Surface Warfare, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) Naval Test and Evaluation Executive (N94), and Naval Surface Warfare Centers. Collectively, with DIU and PEO Ships, these organizations will provide rigorous assessments to optimize alignment with an evolving global defense landscape.

Score Rationale

The DIU CSO pathway earns a strong score as a modern fast-track instrument, but this is a post-award announcement for an already-selected vendor (Siemens Energy), meaning there is no actionable opportunity for a new entrant and timeline details are entirely absent. The AI/ML fit scores zero because this is a hardware-dominant energy storage and power conversion challenge — battery cabinets, ruggedization, and power management controls — with no AI component articulated or implied; 'AI-readiness' is essentially irrelevant here. The problem framing is reasonably concrete around a naval energy storage prototype with named end-users and transition partners, but the award ceiling is undisclosed and the scalability language is vague, limiting the transition score to a 3.

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