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Surface Maintenance Engineering Planning Program (SURFMEPP)

Program Summary


The Surface Maintenance Engineering Planning Program (SURFMEPP) is an echelon three command that reports to the Deputy Commander Ship Maintenance and Modernization, SEA21, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). The command is comprised of approximately 240 personnel led by a Commanding Officer supported by civil service personnel and contractor technical support staff, and is headquartered at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, VA. SURFMEPP maintains detachments located in Norfolk, VA; Mayport, FL; Pearl Harbor, HI; Yokosuka, Japan; Sasebo, Japan; Everett, WA; San Diego, CA; Manama, Bahrain and Rota, Spain.

SUBMEPP Global Footprint map

SURFMEPP Global Footprint

SURFMEPP is the organic outgrowth of the Surface Ship Life Cycle Management (SSLCM) activity created by NAVSEA in 2009. At the time, SSLCM represented a major change in how the maintenance and modernization of surface ships was to be planned, budgeted and executed – delivering products that injected discipline and an engineered approach into a process lacking both attributes for some time.

On November 8, 2010, the Navy established SURFMEPP and tasked the command with providing centralized surface ship life cycle maintenance engineering, class maintenance and modernization planning, and management of maintenance strategies. This tasking is the underpinning of SURFMEPP’s mission and is aligned with and responsive to National, Fleet, Surface Type Commander and NAVSEA needs and priorities.

In its provision of services to the maintenance community, SURFMEPP develops and issues Technical Foundation Papers (TFPs) that establish notional maintenance man-day requirements, by class, over the life of the ship. SURFMEPP also manages the development of hull-specific Ship Sheets which assign man-days to each CNO availability. SURFMEPP manages the Class Maintenance Plan (the driver for the development of technical requirements), issues Baseline Availability Work Packages for Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) availabilities, and furnishes tools to capture and analyze maintenance history, execution and return cost data associated with each CNO availability. Consequently, SURFMEPP ensures that the requirements pushed to the Fleet are technically accurate, tracked, managed, and adjudicated on a level that is visible and transparent in every way.

SURFMEPP’s approach ensures that all surface ships now have an articulated, technically rigorous and engineered maintenance oversight process that supports each ship reaching its Expected Service Life. Accurate assessments of each ship allow maintenance to be planned in advance and properly integrated with modernization. The benefits of this approach are early planning of complex availabilities and reduction of new work and avoidance of incremental discovery.

Lastly, SURFMEPP continues to establish accountability and forced responsibility within the community, moving forward with maintenance strategy building and issue resolution for this forum. Accordingly, the command works diligently to provide ample avenues for valuable feedback from its stakeholders and the maintenance community.

SURFMEPP… Achieving Expected Service Life…One Ship at a Time.


Updated July 2019