NAVSEA Team 'On Watch' Supporting Forward Deployed Carriers
NAVSEA News Wire
1/13/2003
By JOC David Nagle, Naval Sea Systems Command Public Affairs
As the United States armed forces gear up for possible increased operations in Southwest Asia, someone will inevitably ask the question "Where are the aircraft carriers?"
USS Constellation (CV 64) arrived on station in the Arabian Gulf and will soon be joined by USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), both on regularly scheduled deployments. USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) was recently ordered to remain on deployment longer than scheduled, while USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) was also ordered to prepare for deployment to the Fifth Fleet AOR. USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) is gearing up for deployment in the next few months while USS George Washington (CVN 73) is on alert for a possible deployment.
America's aircraft carriers have been vital in the nation's war on terrorism. Ensuring those carriers are ready to deploy at a moment's notice, and can stay deployed for extended periods of time, is a priority of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), its Naval Shipyards and Supervisors of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair (SUPSHIPs).
"Since 9-11, and even more so today, our carriers are being called on to project our nation's will and sail in the defense of freedom," said Vice Adm. Phillip Balisle, NAVSEA Commander. "It's the NAVSEA Team's job to ensure our carriers are ready to respond when the call comes, and to provide the support they need to stay in the fight."
Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va. and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash. stepped up the pace during 2002 to keep carriers on station during Operation Enduring Freedom. The carriers' increased op tempo required the shipyards both to accelerate previously planned depot availabilities and to shorten the duration of availabilities. Norfolk and Puget Sound successfully met this combined challenge.
Puget Sound completed a planned incremental availability (PIA) on USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) on a compressed schedule of five months, vice the originally planned six month schedule. At the same time, the shipyard moved up by three months the start date for the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) PIA. Norfolk completed availabilities on Theodore Roosevelt and Truman under cost and ahead of schedule.
A team from Norfolk Naval Shipyard also worked through the holidays to prepare TR for an accelerated training exercise to certify the ship ready for deployment (see related story below).
"These shipyard successes didn't 'just happen,'" said Rear Adm. William Klemm, NAVSEA Deputy Commander for Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations. "They are the result of our dedicated, highly-skilled work force, operating as one shipyard in four locations by standardizing maintenance and business practices. And initiatives like Carrier Team One allow us to provide quality fleet support to the carriers and get them back out doing the nation's business."
The Carrier Team One concept, a NAVSEA-led initiative, brings together all the stakeholders, from both the Navy and private industry, involved in carrier availabilities to focus on improving key planning and execution processes and ultimately perform more maintenance and modernization for the dollar.
Another key element in the public shipyards' completing availabilities more effectively and efficiently is their partnership with private-sector shipyards, such as the partnership between Northrop Grumman Newport News and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for USS Enterprise's (CVN 65) extended docking selected restricted availability (ESRA), currently in progress. SUPSHIP Jacksonville will oversee the ESRA on USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) scheduled to begin this month in Mayport. Kennedy's ESRA, that includes cooperative partnering with three master ship repair contractors and Norfolk and Puget Sound Naval Shipyards, is "the largest carrier availability to date performed outside a public shipyard," according to David Phillips, deputy SUPSHIP Jacksonville.
Support to the carriers extends well beyond the confines of the shipyards as well. A rapid response team from Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility recently flew to Constellation while the ship was enroute to the Arabian Gulf, to assess damage and provide repair assistance following a fire in one of the ship's main machinery rooms. The team removed fire-damaged insulation and inspected equipment as well as structural, electrical and piping systems, allowing Constellation to continue on without delay.
The partnership of NAVSEA, Naval Air Systems Command and Space and Naval Warfare Command, through the Joint Fires Network (JFN) Program Office, is supporting Lincoln, which was ordered to remain on deployment. Lincoln deployed with JFN, a transformational network-centric warfare family of systems that provides near real time intelligence correlation, sensor control and planning, target generation, precise target coordinates, moving target tracks, and battle damage assessment capabilities to support more timely engagement of time critical targets. This capability allows Lincoln to share a greatly improved battlespace picture very quickly with other ships in the area of operations, and with Army, Air Force and Marine sites using their services' versions of the JFN in the Southwest Asia area of operations.
Kitty Hawk, having been ordered to prepare for deployment to the Fifth Fleet AOR in support of ongoing operations and contingencies, recently completed installation of JFN components.
"In response to Lincoln's order to remain deployed, and Kitty Hawk's order to prepare, the program office sent teams to both ships to upgrade the JFN software and provide training," said Cmdr. Lyle C. Brown, JFN Director for Fleet Operations. "This will enhance the system's joint interoperability while providing greater real-time situational awareness to the battle group commander."
In addition, NAVSEA is supporting fleet readiness through programs such as Distance Support, which leverages state-of-the-art information technology connectivity to collaboratively link ships at sea with technical centers ashore.
"A forward deployed, highly flexible and rapidly reenforcable carrier force is a unique and oftentimes indispensable component of our nation's arsenal, especially in these uncertain times," said Balisle. "No other nation and certainly no single organization can produce such a force. The United States does so through the collaborate teaming of our Navy engineering community, the Fleet and our industry partners.
"The tip of the spear - our forward deployed Naval forces on watch -- is sharp," Admiral Balisle added. "The NAVSEA Team is on watch as well, working to keep that tip sharp."
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