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LCS UWSH Procedural Development
By: CWO3 Joe Theodorou, UWSH Project Manager and LCS Program Manager
For the past two years, NAVSEA 00C5 has been working with the Program Executive Office to Littoral Combat
Ships (LCS) with PMS 505 in developing waterborne maintenance and repairs needs for both LCS variants.
Most recently, SEA 00C5, working with SUPSHIP Gulf Coast, Thrustmaster of Texas (TMOT), and PCCI, developed
the removal and installation procedure for the LCS Independence Class Retractable Azimuthing Thruster (RAT), or
to most of us the APU. Development of any procedure is a lengthy process to ensure safety of personnel and the integrity
of the ship is not compromised. Below is a quick-look as to the overall procedural development implementation.
• Sponsoring command provides statement of work
• Establish funding from sponsoring command
• Determine in-house engineering or need to contract
• Request technical manuals and drawings
• Model design through programs such as Solid Works and CAD
• 00C5 Engineer approves concept designs
• Fabricate required support equipment if required
• Test fit and procedure on available vessel of opportunity (under-construction, dry dock, or waterborne)
• Validate and approve procedure
and equipment
In July 2015, we were able to establish
a week at TMOT, to verify our procedures
and equipment to support the
removal and replacement of the RAT. To
give you a timeline, we started with this
in August of 2014. As we know procedures
are not always perfect, divers have
always found ways to improve existing
procedures or equipment to support jobs
while maintaining safety of personnel
and the integrity of the ship or submarine
they are working with. Extending the opportunity
to our fleet lockers, SWRMC
and SRF-Yokosuka divers were able to
remove and replace in a RAT in the test
stand at the TMOTs facility; three divers
from SWRMC and four divers from
SRF-Yokosuka were in attendance.
“Being directly involved in validating
these procedures was extremely beneficial
in ironing out and identifying problems
that only a diver can relate to. By
having a firsthand look into the process it
allowed us to come up with better ways
and improve a few of the steps versus
having to discover this later on. This saves
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RAT unit mounted into TMOT Test Stand used during procedural validation
a lot of time and resources and minimizes having to go back to the drawing board later on.” said NDC Jose Nunez of SRF-Yokosuka
Our Navy is consistently changing with new ships being built and the opportunity to affect future repairs
can be changed if we know about it. We can’t fix what we don’t know, so send us your change requests.
STEM
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