Immersion Equipment News

RFD Beaufort, Inc., Sharon City, Ohio, is being awarded a not-to-exceed $27,430,200 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to manufacture 6,000 submarine escape immersion equipment MK 11 suits.  Work will be performed in Sharon City, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by March 2014.  The applicable Navy Working Capital Funds will not expire by the end of the current fiscal year.  One company was solicited for this noncompetitive requirement and two offers were received in response to this solicitation.  The NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support, Mechanicsburg, Pa., is the contracting activity (N00104-12-D-F001).

Seven personnel practiced locking out from the attack submarine USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) and ascending to the surface wearing special suits that are designed to enable a free ascent from a stricken submarine Dec. 2 during ESCAPEX at the Navy’s Southeast Alaska Acoustic Measurement Facility in Ketchikan, Alaska. While several foreign navies practice the maneuver routinely, the U.S. Navy had not conducted it in more than three decades, and never from a nuclear-powered submarine. The Navy’s renewed interest in submarine escape comes as U.S. submarines operate more frequently now in shallow coastal waters, said Submarine Development Squadron (CSDS) 5 Commander Capt. Butch Howard, who oversaw the exercise.