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Naval Undersea Warfare Center Det. San Diego Relocates

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS110111-06
1/11/2011

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) James R. Evans, Navy Public Affairs Support Element West

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Sailors assigned to Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Detachment San Diego want fleet customers to know that their new offices at Building 36 aboard Naval Base San Diego (NBSD) are open for business starting in January 2011.

The detachment completed the move of administrative offices to the waterfront at NBSD near Pier 4 in October 2010 after 25 years at their previous location, which was located 11 miles inland near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

NUWC Detachment San Diego provides research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support services for surface ships, submarines, aircraft and other weapons systems in the San Diego area.

Lt. Cmdr. Maria Gomez, the detachment's officer-in-charge and fleet liaison officer, said the move was necessary and made sense for everyone involved.

"Our customers are here on base so it makes it easier for everyone, especially our surface clients to just cross the brow and come over for a visit, whereas before it was a 20-minute ride up north," said Gomez.

"It'll save on travel time and cost and the quicker we can provide assistance, the quicker the war fighters can get on with their mission," added Gomez.

Among their many areas of expertise, NUWC is known in the fleet for their work in magnetic silencing, the practice of reducing ship's magnetic signatures and making them more difficult to detect against the earth's magnetic field.

The San Diego detachment operates the degaussing range at Naval Base Point Loma (NBPL), which warships pass through as they enter and depart the port of San Diego. NUWC personnel also perform deperming for new construction ships and ships requiring major magnetic signature re-adjustments.

NUWC San Diego Division Manager Jack Smith said his team is already seeing the benefits of being closer to the waterfront when providing technical support for routine operations.

"Just in the short time we've been here it has allowed us, when we do magnetic silencing for example, to spend a lot less logistical time going down to do pre-briefs for the ships and answer their questions which means we can give them more of our time," said Smith.

"When you're located far inland, and you're supporting the fleet, it certainly doesn't help communications and dialogue with fleet customers," added Smith. "Now that we're located right across the street from our customers, we think it's going to make the relationship a lot stronger."

NUWC Detachment San Diego also operates the Fleet Test and Evaluation Center at NBPL where they provide a dependable, convenient and technically capable source for real-time electromagnetic systems testing services to ships and aircraft in an operational environment.

NUWC is also responsible for conducting surface ship radiated noise measurement testing for ships off of San Clemente Island near the California coast.