NOB, Norfolk, VA –
As confrontations with rogue nations start to become a real possibility, chemical weapons start to look like one of the gravest threats to our Sailors and their ships. Thankfully, the Navy, with the help of Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC) and ship’s force, have come up with a way to combat worst-case scenarios.
The Navy currently uses a complex system of air filters called Collective Protection Systems (CPS) to prevent gas-based chemical weapons from entering the ship. It also has the dual purpose as a general air filter, protecting Sailors from a bit less dangerous things, but still important, such as allergens, dust and undesired odors.
“If a ship is in a chemical environment, it blocks all contaminates in the air,” said MARMC Engineer Nicola Ciccone. “Thankfully, they haven’t had to be used for that yet, but it’s better to be safe than sorry when Sailor’s lives are on the line.”
When the CPS is overhauled Ciccone directs the operation. His crew, which consists of another civil servant and four contractors, are in charge of changing the filters out on every ship of the Destroyer and Amphibious Assault Ship class that comes through Norfolk Naval Base.
One of their most recent CPS operations was on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58.), which went from Aug. 7 – Aug. 9.
“To replace all the filters on one ship, it can take up to two weeks for LHDs, and three days for the DDGs,” said Ciccone. “We are doing the change outs constantly. Another ship is coming in as soon as we finish the current one.”
According to Ciccone, a ship needs to be re-outfitted with filters around every four years, or at least whenever the ship enters an availability or before leaving on deployment. Although switching out air conditioning filters may seem like a simple operation, it takes the concerted effort on both part of the MARMC engineers and ship’s force to complete.
“One of the hardest parts is opening new filters when they are delivered to the pier. We request a 10 to 15 man working party for a DDG to open up the large cans that contain the filters, then open up those cans, set them on the pier and carry them on the ship for the install,” said Ciccone.
Each filter weighs upwards of 50 pounds or more. The removal of the old filter and the installation of the new one is also a time consuming process, which requires multiple people to do properly and safely.
No one understands this process more than Tim Hopkins, a co-worker of Ciccone. He has been doing CPS for many years. “This is my third time doing the CPS overhaul on this ship [USS Laboon] alone,” said Hopkins. “CPS can be really rough, not because of the crew though, those guys are great. Every time I’ve been on this ship the crew has been working hard right alongside us.”
During the CPS change-out on Laboon, the damage controlmen (DC) hauled every box, opened every filter container, which is wrapped in a thick metal binding and brought each filter aboard from the pier by hand then helped install filters.
Retired DC Master Chief and MARMC Engineer James Bufkin is also a part of CPS and brings 31 years of experience to the team.
“Because the process only happens every four years, many Sailors will only do a CPS once during their time in the service. It’s important to have some people who do this full-time, who are experts and can help guide this undertaking.”
After every filter has been painstakingly installed, there is rigorous smoke and pressure tests to make sure the system can stand up to the worst of chemical attacks.
“If there was a chemical attack and the filters weren’t installed correctly, or there was an actual leak, it could be devastating for our sailors,” said Ciccone
The ship’s crew seemed to work diligently, and the MARMC engineers spoke as if they took a great amount of care in their work.
“I feel a sense of accomplishment when a ship passes its test, and then it’s on to the next one,” said Ciccone.
“This is a really important process,” said Bufkin. “Our enemies want to do bad stuff to our Sailors and we get to work on something that would stop it.”