The Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) Class of guided missile destroyers was launched in 1988 and designed to function around the Aegis Combat System, a computer and radar-based missile defense and guidance system.

Timken Lands $1-Billion, US Navy Gear Contract

Feb. 17, 2016

Timken earned a $1-billion, multi-year contract from the U.S. Dept. of Defense to engineer and manufacture main reduction gears for U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers.

Robert Brooks

The Timken Company (IW500/299) received a multi-year contract worth over $1 billion from the U.S. Department of Defense to engineer and manufacture main reduction gears for the U.S. Navy’s ‘next-generation’ guided missile destroyer ships.

A main reduction gear (MRG) is a critical element of a ship’s propulsion system, the function of which is to connect a ship’s engine to its propeller shaft. The MRGs will be branded by Timken’s Philadelphia Gear subsidiary, a company it acquired in 2011 for $200 million. Philadelphia Gear produces high-performance gear drives, components, and related services.

Timken did not detail the start-date for the fixed-term contract, nor the number of MRGs to be supplied. A Timken representative suggested the contract would support new guided missile destroyers (DDGs) the Navy will build over the next decade.

It is the new contract’s options that would raise its total potential value over $1 billion.

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