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Peal Harbor Tests New Weapons Issuance Program

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS040409-24

Release Date: 4/10/2004 2:30:00 PM

By Journalist Seaman Ryan McGinley, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- Region security installed a new weapons issuance program in March for the Pearl Harbor precinct that saves man-hours and paperwork.

Maximus, a contracting company, developed the prototype in 1999. Commander, Pacific Fleet and Commander, Navy Installation¹s common access card (CAC) program management office provided funds to procure hardware and implement the system with state-of-the-art Minitonix touch screen computers.

The program allows personnel to check in and check out weapons, ammunitions and radios for their shifts in a three-window format by using their CAC and PIN, said Calvin C. Beale Jr., information systems training specialist.

"This is a prototype system," said Chief Gunner's Mate (SW) Tony Hall, regional weapons officer. "To do three windows [and] to do a little over 300 people any given day is miraculous. Pearl Harbor alone supports over 400 Naval Security Force personnel."

Originally, security was manually recording all activity on paper, which proved to be not only time consuming, but difficult to track and file.

"One of our biggest problems was trying to issue weapons, ammunitions, radios and everything else in a timely manner," said Hall.

Hall said the new program saves an average of 30 minutes per shift, leaving time for personnel to get to their posts. The number one reason for implementing the system was accountability for all weapons, equipment and ammunitions.

"Coming back and actually knowing the exact location of every piece of arms, ammunition and explosive, that's the end result I look at," he said.

"Accountability is the bottom line because you can walk in there right now and hit a button and know exactly how many weapons have been issued," said Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Brad Owens, assistant weapons administrator.

The program allows security to maintain a database restricting what types of weapons are issued to certain personnel, and flag individuals whose weapons qualifications are expired.

"This system actually holds each individual operator [and] each individual user more accountable for what they have," said Hall.

Owens said the program is extremely user-friendly, and it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to train someone to operate the system. The prototype relies on touch screens and keypads that also allow for easy use.

Bob Nering, commander, Pacific Fleet CAC technical advisor, said the prototype is being implemented at West Loch, Pacific Missile Range Facility, Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station, and Lualualei. San Diego area Navy facilities have also requested information on the prototype; however, Nering hopes to bring the program up to 2004 standards before it's used Navywide.

Security hopes that this program will revolutionize the way weapons and ammunition are distributed, yielding increased responsibility throughout the Navy.