Warfare Centers Collaborate Via Chat to Support Tomahawk Weapons System

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS120816-17
8/16/2012

From Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Public Affairs

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport, R.I., and Naval Surface Warfare Center Division, Port Hueneme, Calif., now use chat rooms to support the Tomahawk Weapons System for the Navy's submarine and surface fleet.

The Tomahawk All-Up-Round is an all-weather, long- range, subsonic cruise missile used for land attack warfare, and NAVSEA's warfare centers provide support to the Tomahawk Weapons System Program Office System Test team in the conduction of live fire exercises, interoperability, troubleshooting, and repair to support the overall readiness of the program.

Using chat rooms on computer networks, warfare center personnel can provide continuous, real-time fleet support from their respective facilities for the weapons system.

"Providing support through our chat rooms is critical to mission support," said Steve Rebello, Newport's Tomahawk fleet support lead. "Newport and Port Hueneme provide on-demand support to the fleet through monitoring of the chat rooms. We're leveraging the resources at both facilities to maintain this fleet capability."

"Each warfare center is primarily responsible for supporting a specific platform - Newport for subs and Port Hueneme for the surface fleet." said Paul Ramirez, Port Hueneme fleet support technician. "This allows a surface warfare center and an undersea warfare center to support Tomahawk-enabled platforms."

According to Jim Calia, Port Hueneme engineering supervisor, the collaboration between the warfare centers extends to other commands, particularly during operational events. In 2011, NUWC Division Newport and NSWC Division Port Hueneme worked closely with U.S. 6th Fleet to provide technical information and solutions for the Tomahawk Weapons System during Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya.

"As the operation unfolded, both warfare centers provided real-time assistance on several combat-related systems, including the Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System, Tomahawk Strike Network, mission data systems, and the launching systems," said Calia. "We worked as a team to ensure the integrity of the systems and effectiveness of the capability."

NSWC Division Port Hueneme, commanded by Capt. Bill DeBow, is a warfare center that is part of Naval Sea Systems Command and provides the Navy global fleet with weapon system in-service engineering, logistics, and test and evaluation.

Also a subset of NAVSEA, NUWC Division Newport provides research, development, test and evaluation, engineering, and fleet support for submarine warfare systems and other systems associated with the undersea battlespace. NUWC is charged with meeting the undersea warfare requirements of the 21st century.