A Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division team rebuilt how the Navy tracks and delivers fleet test equipment, cutting errors and getting reliable gear to ships faster.
The work earned the team Naval Sea Systems Command’s top metrology and calibration honor, the V.B. (Kisan) Pandit Innovation Team Award, May 21 at the Washington Navy Yard.
The General Purpose Electrical/Electronic Test Equipment team manages that equipment for ships, shore sites and shipyards across the fleet.
Sailors use meters, scopes and sensors to verify that combat and support systems work. A system that can’t be checked can’t be trusted at sea. When the gear that checks it is wrong or late, readiness slips.
For years, NAWCWD ran that mission on aging tools. Data lived in spreadsheets and scattered files. It moved on quarterly disks and often reached customers stale or incomplete.
Cory McCullough, GPETE branch head, led the team to replace the patchwork with one modern data system, called REALIS. It gave engineers, analysts and program managers a single trusted source for test equipment data and a faster way to move that equipment to the fleet.
Program managers and fleet customers now work from current records instead of fragmented files.
The system replaced a manual process that generated about 30 errors a week. It now prevents more than 1,500 data-entry errors a year. Automated checks replaced manual reviews, cutting some timelines from weeks to minutes.
Cleaner data gives the Navy a sharper picture of what each platform needs and where each asset sits. GPETE moved from fixing errors after the fact to catching them before equipment ships.
The team isn’t done.
“The next step is getting every Sailor the right data the second it changes, not months later. That’s what keeps the fleet ready to fight,” McCullough said.
The award honors Vishnu B. (Kisan) Pandit, a NAVSEA metrology and calibration program manager. He was one of 12 people killed in the Sept. 16, 2013, shooting at the Washington Navy Yard.
NAVSEA created the award in 2017 and presents it each May to mark World Metrology Day.
The award recognized a cross-functional team of engineers, analysts, computer scientists, technicians and financial specialists. The awardees are Cory McCullough, Thomas Morey, Beatriz Sorensen, Nicole Baird, Korey Englert, Timothy Lyons, Dulce Bimbela, Nikkole Richardson, Julio Hernandez, Ulysses Velazquez, Marco Guzman, Patrick Snow, Steven Brooks and Debra Arlow.
For the fleet, the work means fewer errors and faster delivery. For the warfighter, it means the equipment that verifies a system shows up right, complete and on time.
| Date Taken: |
05.29.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
05.29.2026 17:00 |
| Story ID: |
566491 |
| Location: |
CHINA LAKE, CALIFORNIA, US |
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40 |
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This work, NAWCWD data system speeds trusted test equipment to the fleet, by Michael Smith, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
