Courtesy Photo | Air Force Lt. Gen. Wendy Masiello, center, Defense Contract Management Agency...... read more read more
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NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Several of the Defense Contract Management Agency’s top leaders, including the agency’s director, recently visited a shipyard in Virginia that is the sole designer, builder and refueler of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy submarines. This visit highlighted the agency’s dedication to its Navy customers and showcased two of the larger programs supported by DCMA Navy Special Emphasis Operations.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Wendy Masiello, DCMA director, led the agency delegation in touring the Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding on Dec. 11, where they saw firsthand the construction of the Navy’s Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers and Virginia-class submarines.
“Having Lt. Gen. Masiello visit was important because it showed the agency's continuing commitment to our Navy customers,” said Navy Capt. Brian McGinnis, DCMA NSEO commander. “NSEO plays a unique role at DCMA as we are customer-specific rather than geographic, in-plant or functionally aligned. I'm proud of the work our people are doing supporting carrier, submarine and other Navy programs.”
Masiello and McGinnis were joined by Navy Rear Adm. Deborah Haven, DCMA International commander, Richard Fanney, DCMA deputy chief operations officer, and Navy Capt. Michael Murphy, DCMA Eastern Regional Command commander.
The visit was coordinated between the DCMA NSEO contract management office, Naval Sea Systems Command’s Program Executive Office Aircraft Carriers and Supervisor of Shipbuilding offices and Huntington Ingalls Industries, the contractor that owns Newport News Shipbuilding.
Matthew J. Mulherin, HII corporate vice president, hosted the DCMA contingent and provided an initial overview of the shipyard’s history and manufacturing capabilities. The group was shown shipboard critical safety items, or CSIs, used in the complex manufacturing operations. This includes welding and various assembly processes requiring the strictest attention to detail for the fabrication and construction of a nuclear powered Ford-class carrier.
The visit was also an opportunity for Masiello to learn further about NSEO’s organization. The office is a virtual CMO with a staff of 300 personnel, of which 223 are quality assurance specialists providing surveillance, oversight and acceptance of shipboard critical safety items and nuclear propulsion components at over 930 suppliers in 44 states.
The director had a working lunch with NSEO senior management and headquarters staff and discussed other NSEO programs and support the CMO provides, as well as areas in which her staff could assist NSEO.
McGinnis said, “The most important aspect of Lt. Gen. Masiello’s visit here was to see the premier Navy shipbuilding programs and how the NSEO fits into that complex and highly technical process.”
Carriers
The visit included a windshield tour of the shipyard followed by a presentation on HII’s use of lean manufacturing principles and state-of-the-art computer technologies in planning and fabricating modular sections of the carrier’s hull. As part of cost and time-savings initiatives, the contractor uses the 1-3-8 rule to identify ways to reduce the overall cost of construction. The rule suggests that an operation that costs $1 to produce in the shop would costs $3 pier-side and $8 on the ship. By maximizing the use of shop manufacturing, pre-assembled sections of the ship are staged and built at key locations around the shipyard with the larger sections assembled in the main dry dock.
Two carriers in this class are currently under construction in Newport News, the future USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79). Updates to the new carrier class include improved warfighting capabilities, dual band radar, electromagnetic aircraft launch system and advanced arresting gear, lower maintenance, reduced manning requirements and a better quality of life for the sailors. The Ford is scheduled to be commissioned next year, replacing the inactivated USS Enterprise (CVN 65), which is being decommissioned in a dry dock near the Ford.
A highlight of the visit was a tour of the Ford, where Masiello was shown a number of the main propulsion, seawater and shafting systems that fall under NSEO’s quality assurance specialists’ surveillance. The group also visited the flight operations planning room, galley and officer quarters under construction. On the flight deck, Navy Capt. John Meier, the commanding officer, briefed Masiello on the Navy’s newest technology for launching aircraft, electromagnetic aircraft launch system, or EMALS.
The current air launch and recovery equipment, or ALRE, systems utilize steam to propel the aircraft off the deck. The advanced EMALS will use a series of high-powered magnets to do this in a cleaner and safer way. It will require less overall maintenance, enabling higher sorties and greater on-deck availability for the warfighter thus reducing lifecycle costs of the system.
Submarines
Newport News is also one of two private shipyards building the Navy’s Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines. Masiello and the group were shown examples of the delivered complex manufacturing machinery the NSEO QASs are involved with in their oversight duties at assigned submarine program suppliers. The Virginia-class program continues to be a banner program for the Navy and American taxpayers due to its on time and on cost delivery successes.
The tour highlighted HII’s Modular Outfitting Facility where platforms of complex components, such as pumps, turbines, valves and condensers, are installed into cylindrical hull sections and then welded together to form completed submarines. Several submarines are under construction at the shipyard, including two in the MOF, the future USS Indiana (SSN-789) and USS Washington (SSN-787).
McGinnis was pleased with the scope of the visit, and for the opportunity to give Masiello and other senior leaders a close look at the work his CMO performs.
“We are glad the director was able to visit and see firsthand the complex, intricate world of the shipbuilding program and gain knowledge of the support NSEO provides for DCMA and the Navy fleet.”
| Date Taken: | 02.04.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.04.2015 13:26 |
| Story ID: | 153500 |
| Location: | NEWPORT NEWS, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 578 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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