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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