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Navy Munitions Command Conus East Division Detachment Jacksonville Expands Mine Capabilities

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100306-18
Release Date: 3/6/2010 5:34:00 PM

By Kaylee LaRocque, Naval Air Station Jacksonville Public Affairs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- Mine technicians from Navy Munitions Command Unit Charleston visited Navy Munitions Command Conus East Division Detachment Jacksonville (NMC CED Det Jax) March 1-5 to provide mine build-up training for the detachment's military and civilian workforce.

The mission of the detachment is to operate and maintain explosive ordnance outloading/transshipment to support Atlantic Fleet and Department of Defense conventional ammunition requirements. The detachment's focus is to provide Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville tenant commands and fleet warfighters with quality ordnance by following their motto: "SPOT – safely, professional and on-oime."

Previously, when squadrons requested air-laid mines, a team of minemen would have to travel to NAS Jacksonville to assemble the mines. "Our capability was limited to handling, storage and transportation of mines. This training now allows us to build mines and alleviate the need for a visiting assembly team," said Lt. David Fowler, NMC CED Det Jax officer in charge.

"Not only will this increase our ability to support our customers on the flight line, it will also save the Navy a significant amount of TDY dollars, which is a constant challenge in today's operational environment," he added.

The Charleston team consisted of four Sailors who spent the week instructing NMC CEd Det Jax personnel how to assemble the mines.

"We came down here to qualify them to assemble the MK 62 and 63 quick strike series inert mines to help reduce costs to the Navy by limiting the number of personnel we send out on our mine assembly teams," said Chief Mineman (SW) Robert Allard, Navy Munitions Command Unit Charleston operations planner. "By certifying members here, they will be able to build the mines here and we will assist them by sending a quality assurance representative and a team leader instead of a whole team to do the work."

The certification process consisted of classroom and hands-on training. "We spent the first day in classroom learning the procedures of building the mines. On the second day we loaded the mines onto trailers and today we are actually getting some hands-on training assembling them with arming and target detecting devices and putting on fins and belly bands. The process starts with just a mine body and then you assemble the gear onto it," said Ed Murphy, NMC CED Det Jax magazine supervisor.

"This is the first time we've actually built them and everything has been going really well. Once we complete this training, we'll go through a certification board and PQS program before we are fully qualified to assemble the mines ourselves," Murphy said.

Navy Munitions Command functions as the Navy's center for ordnance management that aligns all fleet ordnance support operations ashore worldwide and provides quality and responsive logistics, technical and material ordnance support to the warfighters.

The detachment at NAS Jacksonville consists of 49 military personnel and 10 civilian employees.