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When something malfunctions or breaks, what do Sailors do? They grab their tools, troubleshoot it to figure out what caused the malfunction, and they fix it. But sometimes tools aren’t set to the correct standard. Calibration provides the standard for our tools and equipment, to maintain the Navy’s warfighting and mission readiness aboard USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).
In the simplest terms, calibration is defined as comparing an unknown value to a known value. It falls under the science of metrology, the study of measurement. The concept can be traced back to ancient Egypt, when the distance between the Pharoh’s nose and the tip of his finger was considered a unit of measurement.
“That’s why the pyramids were structured the way they are,” said Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class John Thompson. “If there’s no standard of measurement to say that a foot is a foot, or a pound is a pound, how do we have continuity?”
Over the centuries, more advanced systems would be developed, such as the metric system, which is used today as one of the central standards of measurement in calibration.
Today, calibration is utilized in numerous industries: aerospace, medical, automotive, and manufacturing, to name a few. In the Navy, calibration is a major part of the day-to-day operations on nearly every ship in the fleet.
Calibration is utilized in the calibration laboratory (Cal Lab). It is a part of the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department (AIMD), and mainly manned by aviation electronics technicians (AT). Every month, the Cal Lab will send out an updated 350 report, which is a list of all the calibrated equipment every work-center on the ship has custody of. A representative from the work-center will turn in their equipment for calibration, before the due date that’s written on the calibration sticker on the item. Some items are too massive to bring to the Cal Lab, so the representative will request an on-site, where technicians from the Cal Lab come to the work-center and calibrate the item on location. If the item is broken, the work center has to get it repaired before turning it back to the Cal Lab. Aviation Electronics Technician 3rd Class Jacob Button said the reason behind these procedures is for it to be reliable as quickly as possible.
“Our most important job is peridocially checking gear and making sure it’s working,” said Button. “If you are trusting something you assume is working and it’s broken, it’s a bad day.”
There are two kinds of calibration: electrical and mechanical. Mechanical calibration involves non-electrical tools such as torque wrenches, pressure gauges, and switches. Electrical calibration involves electrical tools and equipment, like multimeters, oscilloscopes, waterloads, and attenuators.
Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class Bryson Long said that ATs and electronics technicians (ET) are the only rates authorized to calibrate electrical equipment. After initial schooling, ATs and ETs can receive orders for Calibration Technician billets, and attend a six month follow on school in Biloxi, Mississppi, to learn calibration theory, troubleshooting, and administration procedures that they can apply to the fleet.
The Cal Lab maintains and monitors up to 21,000 calibrated items aboard the ship. On deployment, AIMD is the number one customer for Cal Lab, because they’re constantly working on the gear from the squadrons and they need to keep their tools in check. However, when the ship is in port, AIMD takes a back seat to other departments. Multiple departments use equipment such as pressure gauges to keep track of the PSI running through their respective systems.
“You want to make sure you have proper pressure, not too much, not too little,” said Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Rosa Andrews. “It’s very important, especially when it comes to a potienl fire.”
The Combat Systems Department uses pressure gauges to monitor the dry air that runs their radar equipment.
“Without calibration, there wouldn’t be any maintenance,” said Electronics Technician 2nd Class Samuel Perez. “No maintenance, no radar; no radar, no eyes; no eyes, degraded warfare capability.”
The Engineering Department uses radar to monitor the amount of water in the tanks to maintain list control of the ship. They also use pressure gauges to watch the fire mains and the ship’s systems in damage control central.
“When we lose power, the consoles in DC Central don’t work,” said Damage Controlman 3rd Class Dulse Herrara. “So we have to physically walk around and check all the gauges, and that’s why we have stuff calibrated.”
While all of these department’s gear is important, the Cal Lab’s services are the most essential for Reactor Department. Along with numerous pressure gauges, reactor has torque wrenches, switches, tempature switches, and pressure switches that constantly need to be calibrated. Reactor will send Sailors to work in the Cal Lab to act as represenitives of the department, to assist in calibrating Reactor Department equipment, performing on-sites in Reactor Department spaces, and reading certain schematics. These Sailors will determine whether certain jobs are high priority or not in order to maintain the reactor’s optimal functionality to provide the fundmental needs of the ship, such as potable water, electricity, and steam.
“That’s how important Cal Lab is to Reactor Department,” said Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class Liam Adams. “We give them the support that they need to do their job properly.”
Because of calibration, pilots can launch off the flight deck with absolute confidence in the instruments they use to accomplish the mission, and engineers and technicians can accurately read the data of systems that people onboard depend their lives on.
Calibration has served the Navy and the rest of society for decades, and will continue to do so in the years to come.
| Date Taken: | 05.05.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.20.2025 16:08 |
| Story ID: | 498502 |
| Location: | BREMERTON, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 11 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Calibration: Standardizing Warfighting, by PO3 Benjamin Hurner, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
