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Corona Facility Increases Warfighting Readiness

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090412-03
Release Date: 4/12/2009 10:19:00 PM

From Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona Public Affairs

NORCO, Calif. (NNS) -- Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Corona, a Naval Sea Systems Command field activity, established the first calibration support for advance boresight equipment (ABE) at Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP), North Island April 1.

The ABE is the latest piece of test equipment that allows the fleet to accurately boresight aircraft in a fraction of the time it used to take.

"This gives the Navy unprecedented capability to provide maintenance support at NADEP North Island and is an example of how our Corona engineers reduce maintenance costs and improve readiness," said Capt. Rob Shafer, NSWC Corona commander.

The ABE currently supports the AH-1W, AH-1Z, MH-60R helicopters and will soon support the F-35, UH-1Y, C-130, SH-60S, V-22 and AV-8B aircraft. The organic ABE calibration capability saves the Navy approximately $3,500 per calibration, helping the Navy realize a cost avoidance of approximately $200,000 per year.

As the Navy's Metrology Engineering Center, NSWC Corona provides core metrology and calibration (METCAL) capability needed to support the entire Navy. Spanning the full spectrum of Navy domains - undersea, surface, air and space - NSWC Corona directly supports submarines, surface ships, aircraft, land vehicles and space assets, as well as provides similar METCAL support for the Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

"Corona develops, reviews, approves and distributes calibration procedures for the Navy and Marine Corps," said Arman Hovakemian, NSWC Corona Measurement Science department head. "Our engineers, scientists and technicians support 409 calibration labs, 242 on ships and 167 on the ground."

Corona engineers recently completed an operational test assessment in a live stream environment for the automated METBENCH Calibration Management System (MCMS). METBENCH MCMS uses an innovative information technology application to improve calibration readiness reporting for the Navy's surface fleet while increasing the calibration efficiency at the ashore calibration laboratories.

The METBENCH Calibration Management System deployment began in July 2007 and is currently deployed on 92 ships and will save an estimated $38.6 million during the next six years.

"Corona helps the Navy in reaching the 313-ship Navy by reducing the maintenance workload needed to sustain the current fleet," said Hovakemian.

"With the millions of calibrations the Navy needs to maintain readiness, we're using automation, innovation, and modernization to reduce costs for the Navy, reduce cumbersome workload for our Sailors and extend the life of our surface fleet."

Around the world, Navy technicians at ashore and afloat calibration labs test and calibrate more than 1.7 million pieces of test equipment and perform more than 525,000 calibrations per year using more than 5,000 calibration procedures. All manual and automated calibration procedures, test-equipment evaluations, measurement analysis, and even some calibration standards, originate in NSWC Corona's Measurement Science Department.