NORFOLK NAVAL SHIPYARD, Virginia –
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Activity (PHNSY & IMF) experts played a key role in completing complex work required to prepare a former attack submarine for a new role as a moored training ship (MTS) which will support the U.S. Navy’s submarine force. Since July 17, a team of 88 PHNSY & IMF Shipyarders have been carrying out a valve and elbow replacement on USS San Francisco (SSN 711) in Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY).
This Special Emphasis Job (SEJ) was scheduled to be completed in 38 days, but PHNS & IMF Code 361, a division and project team of PHNSY & IMF’s 300N Nuclear Production Department, set a targeted completion date of just 32 Days. The team from Pearl Harbor was up to the challenge, completing the job in 25 days, a full thirteen days ahead of schedule.
Pearl Harbor’s support of this project was essential to ensure key system component integrity will be maintained for San Francisco’s new duties as a moored training ship. SEJ’s refer to critical and complex work that has been deemed outside of routine shipyard capabilities and functions.
PHNSY & IMF Commanding Officer Capt. Greg Burton said the collaboration between the two shipyards proved the importance of the services both organizations provide.
“Our country has four public and two private nuclear-capable shipyards, and we can't always do what is assigned to us,” said Burton. “When you get down into the specific skills needed, sometimes there are imbalances, and sometimes one yard has a specific skill. When the shipyards share, we learn faster. The high velocity learning piece is critical, and not just because it's a Chief of Naval Operations' priority, but because we recognize it as a corporation and we've set up communities of practice so we can share our knowledge. If we rely on the shipyards as single entities, we're less efficient. Being able to share these teams allows us to get the nation's work done."
Jantzen Nishikawa, Code 361 Project Superintendent, emphasized that cooperation between Pearl Harbor and Norfolk as critical to the successful completion of the complex job.
“We functioned as one shipyard with NNSY to support our “Big Navy” needs and mission,” said Nishikawa. “We eliminated the mindset of ‘NNSY jobs are NNSY jobs and PHNSY jobs are PHNSY jobs.’ Working with Norfolk, we were able to execute this job with a ‘One Shipyard’ mindset.”
Going into this assignment, PHNSY & IMF had limited experienced in executing SEJ's of this magnitude at off-site locations. The sharing and implementation of best practices and experiences from NNSY and the other public shipyards empowered Pearl Harbor Shipyarders to anticipate and engage problems and challenges before they were encountered.
Nishikawa observed that this type of work required specialized qualification training as the personnel assigned needed to developed unique skill sets to accomplish the mission.
“Special Emphasis Jobs require high intensity, complex planning, complex training systems and formal qualification training,” said Nishikawa. “Normal day-to-day shipyard work and skills do not typically support the complex nature of this job. Our team took ownership of the process and developed the developed the specialized skill sets needed to get the job done.”
The work completed by the PHNSY & IMF team was praised by Capt. Scott Brown, Commanding Officer of NNSY.
“I wanted to pass on my thanks to you and your team for the tremendous work on USS San Francisco,” said Brown. “Outstanding professionals with first time quality on a very difficult job. NNSY and the MTS program thank you. Well done!"
San Francisco was decommissioned on November 4, 2016 after 35 years of service and was subsequently re-designated as a training platform for the U.S. Navy submarine force. Before the Los Angles-class submarine can be repurposed for this new mission as a MTS, PHNSY & IMF experts were called upon for their support. Pearl Harbor Shipyarders’ expertise in accomplishing required modifications will ensure the extension of the submarine’s life to support critical training for future submarine crew members at the Nuclear Power Training Unit in Charleston, South Carolina.
Many PHNSY & IMF shops are supporting the work on San Francisco. In addition to Code 361, workers come from the Production Resources Department (Code 900), including pipefitters from Shop 56N, machinists from Shops 38N and 31N, ship-fitters from the Shop 11N, technicians from Shop 56N (FARO), skilled laborers from Shop 64 (Sail loft), welders from Shop 26N, and riggers representing Shop 72. Other Shipyard employees supporting this team include members of the Special Project Branch (Code 2320.9), and representatives of many divisions of PHNSY & IMF's Quality Assurance Department, including the Radiological Monitoring Division (Code 105.3), the Radiological Engineering Division (Code 105.2), the Nuclear Inspection Division (Code 139), the Welding Engineering and NDT Test Examiner Division (Code 138), and the Nondestructive Test Division (Code 135).
PHNSY & IMF is a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command and a one-stop regional maintenance center for the Navy's surface ships and submarines. It is the largest industrial employer in the state of Hawaii with a combined civilian and military workforce of over 5,000. Strategically located in the mid-Pacific, the Navy’s largest ship repair facility between the West Coast and the Far East is about a week of steam time closer to potential regional contingencies in East Asia than sites on the West Coast.
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