NS last month licenced its new economic engine core technology to Consolidated Spacecraft, but they have also used the "e-core" as its known in a new engine family called the Proton. The first engine in this family is the Proton RM-01 which will begin testing in a Pentekonter 044M next week. Proton RM-01 has the same power of the Hitachi HS-760GX currently used but uses 11% less fuel according to bench testing.
Its hoped that after extensive testing this year the engine can be used in a future update of the Pentekonter fleet. It will also form part of an updated export version of the Pentekonter Protector. Sales have slowed over the last year (though there is enough of an order backlog to last for years) so NS plan to update their product line by the end of the year.
The low-end 150 series will be dropped as it has achieved few orders. An updated mid-range Pentekonter will (probably) be the 270 series with the Proton engine and other updates. The high-end (probably 370 series) will use an uprated engine and be speed bumped to 500c. Tests have shown that only a few modest structural changes will be needed to allow for a higher speed.
