Navsea Newswire News

The Navy will christen the newest Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer, Dewey, Saturday, Jan. 26, during a 10 a.m. CST ceremony at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Miss. Designated DDG 105, the new destroyer honors Adm. George Dewey (1837-1917) who commanded the Asiatic Station from the cruiser Olympia. Shortly after the onset of the Spanish-American War, Dewey led his squadron of warships into Manila Bay on April 30, 1898. The next morning, his squadron destroyed the Spanish fleet in only two hours without a single American loss. A widely popular hero of his day, Dewey was commissioned admiral of the Navy, a rank created for him, in March 1903. Two previous ships have proudly carried his name.

The guided missile cruiser USS Anzio (CG 68) continues to be a Fleet showcase for engineering improvements developed by the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). During the last 15 months, Anzio received four varied and innovative new technologies from NAVSEA. These include the S4 stainless steel head, magnetic couplings, gas barrier seals for fuel oil pumps, and cloth ventilation vent filters. Completing a successful tour as Anzio's commanding officer, Capt. Mark Nesselrode praised the new technologies. "Each of them has performed beyond my expectations," he said. The S4 head is part of NAVSEA's Maintenance Process Improvement program, which incorporates more than 20 different initiatives, all of which have the goal of reducing Sailor workload.

The Program Executive Officer for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS), Rear Adm. Tom Bush, hosted an industry day on August 7 to brief interested manufacturers and invite industry feedback on a recently released draft Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) solicitation to manufacture Navy Display Systems as well as develop and produce the Navy's next generation of displays, the Future Common Display System. The Navy's Future Common Display System will be the follow-on to the AN/UYQ-70, Advanced Display System. More than 3,200 AN/UYQ-70, Advanced Display Systems have been produced and integrated into ship, submarine, and aircraft combat systems.

USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) reached a benchmark in its maintenance project Aug. 4, as the carrier's combat systems department resurrected Kennedy's pulse. For the first time in eight months, radars came to life in front of a cheering crowd of contractors and Sailors. The team worked hand-in-hand during Kennedy's extended selected restricted availability (ESRA) to ensure all systems were go. "This light-off represents the culmination of work by ship's force and contractor personnel that included numerous new installations, as well as the overhaul or refurbishment of virtually every piece of combat systems equipment aboard 'Big John,'" said Cmdr. Rich Soucie, combat systems officer. According to Lt. j.g.

Popular Science magazine has announced that the Hardsuit 2000 has been chosen to receive a 2001 “Best of What’s New” award in the General Technology category. Each year, the editors of Popular Science select 100 products for the "Best of What's New" from the annual review of thousands of new products, technology developments and scientific achievements. Grand awards are presented to the top product in each of 10 categories named by the publication. Popular Science's December 2001 issue will mark the 14th anniversary of the awards program and include a cover story, along with a 26-page special editorial section highlighting the staff's selections. Popular Science offers Internet users the opportunity to select the Readers' Choice Award from among the 100 winners chosen.

Nearly 100 Sailors regularly assigned to the National Naval Medical Center deployed to Navy Hospital Ship USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20) Sept. 15-16 for a regular pierside practice exercise. The training is necessary to teach the new Comfort crew members shipboard safety, and ship and workplace orientation. The training focused on various topics, including mass casualty and abandon ship drills; lifeboat and litter bearer training; Chemical, Biological and Radiological defense training; repair locker training, and finally, life raft commander training for officers. According to Capt. Charles Blankenship, commanding officer of the Comfort’s Medical Treatment Facility, this year’s Comfort Exercise training is different than previous training periods.

The Honorable Gordon R. England, right, receives the oath of office during a short swearing in ceremony as the 73rd Secretary of the Navy. Administering the oath is Mr. John H. La Raia, Assistant for Administration to the Under Secretary of the Navy. Secretary England becomes only the second person in history to serve twice as the leader of the Navy Marine Corps Team and the first to serve in back to back terms. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Journalist Craig P. Strawser. England becomes…

The V-22 Integrated Test Team (ITT) completed a detachment in USS Bataan (LHD 5) in November, the second at-sea period for the Osprey program this year. During the 11 days of the Phase IV shipboard suitability testing, the ITT conducted deck-landing qualifications for five V-22 pilots, including one from Marine Tiltrotor Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron (VMX) 22, the new test and evaluation squadron based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C. ITT completed test points necessary to expand the Osprey’s wind-over-deck envelope, and measured the effects of hovering H-53 and H-46 helicopters on a V-22 on deck behind them. ITT engineers were pleased with the test results.

The Submarine Force achieved a major step toward FORCEnet capability July 1, with the completion of the first of three steps toward full Internet Protocol, or IP-based, communications, achieving forcewide IP connectivity. This is an important step for the Submarine Force and the fleet. “The submarine architecture is a baseline to begin this process,” said Vice Adm. James D. McArthur Jr., commander, Naval Network Warfare Command. A key concept and enabler of FORCEnet is the ability to share and exchange information quickly and easily across diverse platforms and distances. Legacy systems have enabled part of this vision but limit the type of information (usually text) and are point-to-point exchange events.

From an unassuming block structure nestled between luxury waterfront condominiums, a team of international scientists quietly conducted experiments last week that will have a profound impact on the way ships protect themselves from mines in the future. Research Project operations took place June 10-15 in the Gulf of Mexico at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren's Coastal Systems Station (CSS) training range in Panama Beach. Forty five technical experts from the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Australia, the U.S. and NATO's Supreme Allied Command Atlantic Undersea Research Center in La Spezia, Italy supported the trials. ship USS Warrior (MCM 10) and US Coast Guard patrol boat Coho were also key elements of the trials.

Vice Adm. Pete Nanos, Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command and the Navy's senior engineering duty officer, retired June 26 in a ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard after 35 years of service. Nanos, a native of Bedford, N.H., has commanded NAVSEA since May 1998. transformed NAVSEA into a unified corporation that provides world-class technical, acquisition, and life-cycle support leadership to the Navy. coordinating the Navy's technical response to the terrorist attack on USS Cole (DDG 67) in October 2000. "[Admiral Nanos'] visionary leadership and his exceptional technical ability have brought about a renaissance at NAVSEA, a true transformation," said Adm. Frank Bowman, Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion and the ceremony's guest speaker. "He has brought NAVSEA into the 21st century.

Vice Adm. Pete Nanos, Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command and the Navy's senior engineering duty officer, retired June 26 in a ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard after 35 years of service. Nanos, a native of Bedford, N.H., has commanded NAVSEA since May 1998. Under his leadership, instituted far-reaching quality initiatives that transformed NAVSEA into a unified corporation that provides world-class technical, acquisition, and life-cycle support leadership to the Navy. Some of the highlights of his command of NAVSEA include developing battle force interoperability improvements that fixed warfare system problems before arriving in the fleet…

The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard signed a Memorandum of Agreement recently that will transfer the custody and operational control of four 169-foot Cyclone-class coastal patrol ships to the Coast Guard on or about Oct. 1. A fifth will be transferred at a later date. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the attacks at the Balsarah and Khawr, Iraq, oil terminals, the mission of the Cyclone-class patrol boats was re-evaluated. It was determined that they are invaluable to homeland defense, as well as to overseas port security.

General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) delivered Hawaii (SSN 776), the third Virginia Class submarine to the Navy on Dec. 22. Hawaii is GDEB’s 100th nuclear powered submarine to be delivered to the Navy. “More than 52 years after commissioning Nautilus, the world’s most revolutionary warship, GDEB is delivering another amazing submarine, Hawaii,” said Rear Adm. Hilarides, Program Executive Officer for Submarines. "It is purpose built for in-land power projection by both Special Operation Forces and Tomahawk cruise missiles. Hawaii will be able to fight across the full spectrum of warfare,” said Hilarides. Hawaii’s on-time delivery is…

The USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705) project team at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (PHNSY) completed the Guam-homeported submarine’s Docking Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA) maintenance project on Dec. 15, six days ahead of schedule. In a congratulatory note to the PHNSY team, the Commander of Submarine Force Pacific, Rear Adm. Joseph A. The project team and other shipyard managers acknowledged this project took a slightly different management “tone” from other prioritized projects in the past, and that the positive approach set the team up for early success. “There was ownership and everyone got to hit the ‘I believe button’ in planning,” said Cmdr. Jamie Kalowsky, project superintendent of the approximately 50-member Corpus Christi project management team.

The Navy accepted delivery of the second in the LPD 17 class of amphibious transport dock ship on Dec. 22. The acceptance of the future USS New Orleans, marks the culmination of millions of hours in conceptual planning, design, construction, and testing of this advanced amphibious warship. New Orleans recently completed Builder's and Acceptance Trials during which the shipbuilder, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, successfully demonstrated this new warship's tremendous range of capability. Main propulsion, engineering and ship control systems, mission and combat systems, damage control, food service and crew support systems were exercised.

USS COLE will be re-launched on 15 September 2001 from a floating dry dock at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems' Ingalls Operations, Pascagoula, MS. The ship will be moved to a nearby outfitting pier for completion of remaining work and will be returned to the Fleet in April 2002. The Naval Sea Systems Command's Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion, and Repair, Pascagoula, MS (SUPSHIP) oversaw the restoration effort that commenced in March of this year, following the ship's return to the United States. Work aboard COLE consisted of structural repairs to replace areas damaged in the 12 October 2000 explosion in Aden, replacement of damaged or unserviceable equipment, and removal and evaluation and/or re-certification of critical systems such as shafting and propellers.

The Military Sealift Command (MSC) has a new addition in its fleet of Watson-class large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off (LMSR) cargo ships. The USNS Pomeroy (T-AKR 316), built by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) in San Diego, was recently delivered to the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, U.S. Navy, San Diego (SUPSHIP San Diego) and is destined for Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where she'll spend about 30 months on station pre-positioning her Army cargo. In describing the reasons for this successful delivery, Commander Jay Renken, USN, SUPSHIP San Diego's Program Manager's Representative noted…

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division recently signed a charter with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) establishing a new Center for Innovation in Ship Design (CISD). This new activity that began operating in August establishes a partnership among ONR, NAVSEA and Carderock Division. NAVSEA staffs and ONR funds CISD, located at Carderock Division headquarters. The center's work supports the National Naval Responsibility for Naval Engineering, ensuring a healthy U.S. ability to develop innovative designs for Navy vessels. This interdisciplinary activity is devoted to creating and developing breakthrough ship design technologies, concepts, processes and computational tools.