Tag: NNSY

NNSY supports NAVSEA effort to bring transformation in timely delivery of ships and submarines

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September 19, 2019 – Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) kicked off an aligned effort with Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) this past August to ensure timely delivery of all of ship and submarine availabilities. This is the Naval Sustainment System – Shipyards (NSS-S) transformation, which centers on empowering project mechanics and ensuring continual work execution on the deckplates. “This effort pulls in the entire ‘availability enterprise’ to resolve challenges internal as well as external to public shipyards,” said Shipyard Commander Captain Kai Torkelson. “There have been real improvements at the shipyards…

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Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) does not just fix ships – it also protects them

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September 19, 2019 – Ships are safer at sea than in port. Like two ceramic mugs loosely next to each other in the dishwasher, a ship and the pier will damage each other as they bang together during a storm. Ships also have to leave well in advance of a storm in order to avoid destructive weather and rough seas. The Navy refers to this as a sortie. The next safest option to sortie is Safe Haven. As Hurricane Dorian tracked toward Hampton Roads the week of Sept. 2, NNSY…

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Norfolk Naval Shipyard Dedicates Submarine Maintenance Facility

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June 18, 2019 – Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) dedicated its new Submarine Maintenance Facility June 14. The dedication marked the next crucial step in the NNSY’s realization of the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan that will enhance the ability of the four public shipyards to meet the mission of delivering ships back to the fleet on time and within budget. The new facility consolidates submarine maintenance, production and support shops into a single facility adjacent to NNSY’s submarine drydocks and piers. This two-story structure features shops, storage and support spaces on…

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Ike Completes Sea Trials

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April 2, 2019 – USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) successfully completed sea trials April 1. “Sea trials was successful well beyond expectations,” said Capt. Kyle Higgins, Ike’s commanding officer. “Our investment in our ship paid off and now the real work begins: getting the flight deck certified so we start doing what this warship was built to do – launch and recover aircraft.” Ike departed Naval Station Norfolk March 28, returning to sea for the first time since August 2017. The ship conducted the Sea Trials off the Virginia…

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Ike Returns to Sea Following Planned Incremental Availability

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March 28, 2019 – USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) returned to sea March 28 following a scheduled planned incremental availability (PIA) during which the ship received innovative upgrades. One of the upgrades of note was the installation of the NULKA decoy system. “A disciplined and thoughtful approach to the basics brought us here,” said Capt. Kyle Higgins, Ike’s commanding officer of seeing the ship get underway. “We’ve been training for this for quite some time and invested a tremendous amount of sweat along the way. The hard work every…

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NNSY Welcomes USS George H.W. Bush for Dry-docking Planned Incremental Availability

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February 21, 2019 – USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) arrived at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY), Feb. 21, for a 28-month dry-docking planned incremental availability (DPIA). Dry-docking and maintaining a 103,000 ton, 1,092-foot aircraft carrier is complex work. This DPIA marks the first time George H.W. Bush has not been waterborne since 2006. Requiring an estimated 1.3 million man-days, it will be the most extensive maintenance period for the ship yet and one of the most complex CVN chief of naval operations availabilities in recent NNSY history. The shipyard workforce…

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T&I Lab Purchases New Exoskeleton Suits for America’s Shipyard

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December 7, 2018 – New exoskeleton technology has made its way to Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY), and members of the workforce are now being certified for its use. The Robotics Subcommittee (RSC), a section of the NNSY Technology and Innovation Community of Practice (T&I COP), has been researching new innovative technologies that are able to improve the health, safety, and efficiency of the shipyard worker. One of their most prominent technologies researched and tested is the Levitate Airframe exoskeleton suit, a flexible power suit or limb accessory technology that is…

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NSWC Philadelphia’s 3D virtual dry dock paves way for CVN-78 class carriers

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Engineers from the Advanced Data, Prototyping Technologies, and Virtual Environments (ADAPT.VE) Lab at Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) recently completed a project creating 3-Dimensional (3D) point cloud representations of Dry Dock 8 at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY). Norfolk’s Dry Dock 8 was selected for the project as it was identified as one of a limited number of shipyard facilities with the capacity sufficient for supporting the new USS Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carriers. The 3D computer model will allow the Navy to manipulate data using existing computer-aided…

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Norfolk Naval Shipyard undocks USS La Jolla (SSN 701)

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Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) successfully undocked USS La Jolla (SSN 701) Nov. 8.   La Jolla will remain pier-side to finish the final leg of its moored training ship (MTS) conversion that began in February 2015.  La Jolla is the first of two next-generation platforms undergoing conversion at the shipyard to train nuclear officers and Sailors at the Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU) in Charleston, South Carolina. USS San Francisco (SSN 711) arrived at the shipyard for its conversion in January.   The two current MTS subs at NPTU, both commissioned in…

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NAVSEA’s Four Shipyards Achieve Federal Laboratory Status

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All four of NAVSEA’s public naval shipyards – Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility – achieved federal laboratory status from the Office of Naval Research in June. This status gives the shipyards authorization to employ tools used by other federal laboratories related to technology transfer (T2). “Naval shipyards perform maintenance miracles on a daily basis,” said Steve McKee, strategic project lead for the NAVSEA’s Tactical Innovation Implementation Laboratory (TIIL) which is in the Maintenance and Industrial Operations…

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NNSY and PHNSY complete valve/piping replacement on San Francisco conversion 13 days early

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Two shipyards separated by 5,000 miles collaborated on a major valve and piping replacement project aboard the USS San Francisco (SSN 711) conversion, completing the work 13 days early Aug. 12. San Francisco arrived at NNSY Jan. 25 for its conversion from an operational fast-attack submarine into a Moored Training Ship (MTS), the second of two next-generation MTS’s slated to train nuclear officers and Sailors at Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU) Charleston, South Carolina. The collaboration between the two shipyards began in 2016 after the NNSY project team identified a…

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