Nswccd News

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) said on Friday it has been awarded a task order from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) to conduct a manufacturing assessment of several new propulsor bearing concept designs for U.S. Navy submarines. The task order is under the Propulsor Demonstration Hardware (PDH) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract previously awarded to GA-EMS.“Manufacturing feasibility evaluations such as this are crucial steps in determining whether a new concept design will deliver greater performance…

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) and Hydronalix, Inc. of Green Valley, AZ, signed a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) entitled AISUM Prize Challenge Hardware Support. Agreement number: NCRADA-NSWCCD-21-419. NSWC Crane is hosting an Artificial Intelligence for Small Unit Maneuver (AISUM) Prize Challenge with contestants from industry and academia. With the strategic goals of developing software that can be supported by a variety of hardware, non-proprietary robotic autonomy baseline component architecture and software were required.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) said it has been awarded a developmental contract by Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) to provide manufacturing design drawings, engineering, fabrication, inspection, and assembly of prototype propulsor, shafting and bearing components as well as the equipment needed to support propulsor research and development, testing and evaluation.GA-EMS will work with NSWCCD to develop new propulsor components for both surface ships and submarines.

A new 1,000-pound inertial actuator, the AMA1000, is giving engineers at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) unprecedented capability in full-scale testing. John Miesner, an engineer assigned to Carderock Division's Acoustic Signatures Technology Division, said the Navy has used actuators like the AMA1000 in a wet environment for many years, but the shakers, as they are called, were not capable of producing high forces at a broad range of frequencies until 2014.

CAD/CAM software maker SSI said it is developing solutions for Computer Aided Robotics Welding (CAR-W) consistent with its recent innovations in the area of 3D weld management. This research project is under the aegis of the U.S. Navy’s National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP). In December SSI representatives met with representatives from Wolf Robotics and Edison Welding Institute to advance this project. Other organizations involved include Bollinger Shipyards, Ingalls Shipbuilding, NSWCCD, Purdue University, Colorado State University, Tony Macijewski and Longview Advisors.

Press release - BMT Designers & Planners, a subsidiary of BMT Group, an international maritime design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has been awarded a United States Navy Environmental Quality Programs Support contract at a value of $43 million over five years. BMT will expand its environmental, engineering and logistics services practice to support the program and other similar client requirements. Under the contract, BMT will provide support services to Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA)…

CAD/CAM software maker SSI said it is developing solutions for Computer Aided Robotics Welding (CAR-W) consistent with its recent innovations in the area of 3D weld management. This research project is under the aegis of the U.S. Navy's National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP). On December 10-11, 2015, SSI representatives met with representatives from Wolf Robotics and Edison Welding Institute to further advance this development. Other organizations involved in the project include Bollinger Shipyards…

The Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has selected a new round of research and development projects for award, as part of the program's continuing mission to reduce costs associated with U.S. shipbuilding and ship repair. These new projects, valued at over $11 million, including cost share, were among those proposed in response to Research Announcement 13-01, issued in June. Objective: The goal of this project is to transfer a cost-saving and quality-enhancing technology from the aerospace industry to the shipbuilding industry. The vision is to demonstrate the superiority of laser peening over select current shipbuilding processes in specific applications.

Students glimpse the U.S. On April 25 2013, my family and I went to the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD), Ship Systems Engineering Station (SSES), for national “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.” Most of the people who work there are engineers. Personnel at SSES design and create extremely technological naval ships and submarines, while figuring out new means of power besides oil. Throughout the day, children and parents were put into nine groups, and each group visited nine stations throughout the facility.

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) completed major renovations of the Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin (MASK) facility, Aug. 16. For more than one hundred years, the Navy has built and conducted extensive testing on physical prototypes of ships called scale models before building the real ship in full scale. In 1962, Carderock built the MASK in order to test the scale model performance of ships, platforms and moored systems in realistic sea conditions. The…

Naval Sea Systems Command completed the installation of new control systems aboard USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), April 8, which will reduce fuel usage and crew workload. Engineers from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division - Ship Systems Engineering Station (NSWCCD-SSES) SSES installed the new control systems on a number of shipboard engineering components and are specifically designed to improve automation on the optimally manned ships. “Military Sealift Command-operated ships like the Mount Whitney traditionally have lower manning levels, therefore being able to operate many systems from one central control unit is essential,” said Matthew Douglass, Auxiliary Machinery Automation Branch head.

Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) engineers conducted preliminary Ship to Shore Connector (SSC) seaworthiness model tests in the David Taylor Model Basin, April 22 - May 17. SSC is the replacement for the Navy's existing fleet of Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) vehicles, which are nearing the end of their service life. SSCs - like the LCACs they replace - will be primarily used to haul vehicles, heavy equipment, and supplies through varied environmental conditions from amphibious ships to over the beach.

Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock engineers released a new software that provides the government, industry and academia a standardized method of analyzing data that is expected to improve high-speed craft design. The Standard G software uses a physics-based approach to analyze data recorded during wave-impact testing on watercraft and was developed in partnership with the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Naval Academy and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) completed Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH19) Anemometer Positioning Evaluation (APE) testing in support of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and Military Sealift Command (MSC), Feb. 8.  The testing focused on measuring the airflow of anemometers, wind measurement sensors that are installed on the superstructure of U.S. Navy ships. The APE testing is required to complete the aviation certification process following a new helicopter hangar installation on the ship’s superstructure.

The Stiletto Maritime Demonstration Program conducted its first Capability Demonstration, Jan. 14-27. The initial demonstration was hosted for the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) off the Virginia coast near the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Va. The Capability Demonstration provided NECC Sailors an opportunity to observe new technologies developed by industry in a realistic military maritime environment. The program also provided the 15 participating industry partners an opportunity to receive immediate end-user feedback toward increasing technology readiness levels. “Warfighting needs are rapidly changing…

The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) has released a new Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) (N00167-13-BAA-01) seeking innovative concepts from industry (maritime and non-maritime) and academia that support Navy shipboard energy conservation needs.  Of primary interest are development efforts with the potential for rapid transition to Fleet operations for Military Sealift Command (MSC) and Navy ships.   White papers will be accepted through November 30, 2014.    For BAA access:  https://www.fbo.gov/ (search for N0016713BAA01) or http://www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/carderock/docs/N00167-13-BAA-01.pdf   For technical questions, Email:  NSWCCD_OPLOG@navy.mil

PMFG, Inc. (Parent of Peerless Mfg. Co.) Notice of Award Valued at $13.7 Million to Supply Air Moisture Separation and Filtration Systems to U.S. PMFG, Inc. (Nasdaq:PMFG) has announced it was awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy's Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) to provide the air inlet moisture separation/filtration systems to replace the existing systems on the Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) class. The five-year, multiple-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity firm-fixed-price contract could have a potential value of approximately $13.7 million, if all options are exercised. This order value will be added incrementally to the Company's backlog as purchase orders are released under the contract.

Huntington Ingalls Industries said its AMSEC LLC subsidiary won a task order under a previously awarded contract to provide engineering and technical services to support efforts to improve U.S. Navy shipboard technical data environments. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee SeaPort Enhanced (SeaPort-e) task order contains a base period with two, one-year option periods which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to approximately $4.9m. SeaPort-e is the Navy's electronic platform for acquiring support services in 22 functional areas, including engineering, financial management and program management.

One of the country's top in-water boat demonstrations, Multi-Agency Craft Conference (MACC), has again been cancelled for 2012, as the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) and NSWCCD Combatant Craft Division (CCD) report that despite best efforts, the required approvals cannot be had in time to conduct MACC in 2012. The event was held in 2011, but was cancelled in 2010. ASNE and CCD have started planning now for MACC 2012, but in the meantime ASNE is preparing to offer another event in 2012 aimed at the high-performance boat and craft community in the Tidewater, Virginia area. MACC 2011 featured more than 170 exhibit booths, static displays…

PHILADELPHIA - The first graduate of the Naval Engineering Education Center (NEEC) began work February 13 as a naval architect with Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division - Ship Systems Engineering Station's (NSWCCD-SSES) Advanced Machinery Systems Integration Branch in Philadelphia. The NEEC, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was launched in July, 2010, to develop the talent of future naval engineers. The educational center was established through a $3.2 million contract award from the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), and provides young engineers and scientists access to projects of interest and importance early in their academic careers to build knowledge and enthusiasm for the field.

Participants at a workshop exploring the use of titanium structure for ships found that it is not only possible to construct a ship hull from titanium—or Ti, it could be cost effective. The workshop was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and hosted by the University of New Orleans, where an ONR research program on titanium ship structures is being conducted. Representatives of the shipbuilding industry, titanium suppliers, Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force labs, and academia discussed and examined materials, processes and applications. Most ships today are primarily made from steel.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Subsidiary AMSEC LLC wins U.S. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee SeaPort Enhanced (SeaPort-e) task order contains a base period with two one-year option periods which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to approximately US$ 8.2-million. SeaPort-e is the Navy's electronic platform for acquiring support services in 22 functional areas, including engineering, financial management and program management.

Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock Division researchers complete testing of bulb bows for DDG 51-class. Partnering with Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships and the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Fleet Readiness Research and Development Program, NSWCCD conducted testing as part of the Navy's overall initiatives to reduce fuel consumption. Located near the waterline, the bow bulb is an inverted tear drop shape that protrudes from the hull and is designed to reduce the ship's wave resistance. Specifically, the bow bulb creates a wave designed to interfere with the existing bow wave which reduces the amount of drag on the ship as well as fuel consumption and engine exhaust emissions.