PANAMA CITY, Fla. –
Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Vice Adm. Bill Galinis met with Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) Sailors and civilians to see firsthand how the Navy laboratory achieves its mission during his visit, March 30.
NSWC PCD researches, develops, tests and evaluates capabilities in core mission areas of mine warfare, diving and life support, subsea and seabed warfare, naval special warfare and amphibious and expeditionary warfare in order to ensure Warfighting Dominance in the Littoral Battlespace.
“In an era of great power competition, we need to deliver real combat capability to the Fleet and that’s exactly what the NSWC Panama City Division is doing on a number of different fronts,” said Galinis. “The service and capabilities this division provides to our Sailors and Marines is materially expanding the advantage that our Navy has against our adversaries.”
During the visit, Galinis visited the Ship to Shore Connector, the Navy’s next generation hovercraft, and learned more about the System Integration Lab whose focus is software development, test, and delivery to the Fleet.
Galinis, whose sea duty assignments include Engineer Officer on board USS Roark (FF 1053) and Damage Control Assistant on board USS Vreeland (FF 1068), also experienced Panama City’s reputation as the home of military diving through presentations of diving systems NSWC PCD develops and supports for Naval Special Warfare, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Specialized Research Diving Detachment, Special Operations Command, and Navy Diving. In addition, presenters demonstrated NSWC PCD’s technical capabilities in life support systems such as damage control personnel protective equipment, special warfare support such as the SEAL Delivery Vehicle, and MK-18 unmanned underwater vehicle.
“It is always an honor and a privilege to show off the outstanding work of our great Navy lab, demonstrating our technical expertise in the littoral battlespace in support of the warfighters of today and tomorrow,” said Dr. Peter Adair, NSWC PCD technical director.
His final stop was the NSWC PCD Dive Locker, where he met with their 10 person dive team, including the Sailor of the year Navy Diver First Class (ND1) Cody Levins and Junior Sailor of the year Hospital Corpsman Second Class (HM2) Luis Martinez. Senior Enlisted Leader and Master Diver Master Chief (NDCM) Jay Cox briefed Galinis on the type of diving conducted at the lab before Galinis spoke to the Sailors and reinforced NAVSEA’s mission and NSWC PCD’s role in military diving.
NSWC PCD Commanding Officer Capt. David Back said, “I was very happy to be able to host VADM Galinis and show some of our amazing people working to deliver and support platforms and systems for the fleet sailors and marines that will need them. I have high hopes that he will be able to return and see more.”
This was Vice Admiral Galinis’ first official visit to the Navy lab since he assumed command as the 45th Commander of NAVSEA, June 2020.