Indian Head, Md. –
Personnel from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division’s (NSWC IHD) Systems Integration Department were recognized with fiscal year 2020 2nd and 3rd Quarter Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) Excellence Awards for their efforts in helping the fleet stay up and running. The PEO IWS Excellence Awards are presented twice a year and acknowledge individuals, teams and organizations that have made significant contributions to PEO IWS.
“Our Systems Integration Department’s In-Service Engineering Agents (ISEA) are critical for mobilizing wherever and whenever needed to provide much needed support to our fleet assets,” said NSWC IHD Technical Director Ashley Johnson. “This award is a testament from their peers on their continued excellence in providing unparalleled support to our naval ships.”
Mark 38 In-Service Engineering Agents: William Carroccia and Sean MacDonald (Systems Integration Department)
Mark 38 ISEA personnel William Carroccia and Sean MacDonald were recognized for providing technical support and oversight for four standardized pier-side maintenance and repair (SPMR) events on different ship hulls in Yokosuka, Japan between March and June. The two executed Mark 38 Mod 2 gun mount hull reinstallations aboard USS Benfold (DDG 65) and USS Curtis Wilber (DDG 54); a hull removal aboard USS Chancellorsville (CG 62); and a hull “hot swap” aboard USS Shiloh (CG 67). A “hot swap” is performed during short availability periods and consists of baseline testing and removal of installed gun mounts and replacing them with overhauled A-condition gun mounts.
Each hull presented different and previously unidentified challenges. There were a significant amounts of cable issues, severe water intrusion problems, and other non-SPMR-related problems aboard Benfold and Curtis Wilber which they resolved.
Following MacDonald’s departure, Carroccia continued to make progress when obtaining an additional workforce to assist was not possible. Carroccia provided daily situation reports to his chain of command, enabling the ISEA to elevate shipboard issues prohibiting completion of installs. The repairs were initiated by the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center in late May and completed in early June, leaving Carroccia approximately two days to complete the landing and testing of the starboard gun mount, and finish the remaining work items on the port gun mount.
Mark 38 ISEA Team: James Holle, Kevin MacCheyne, Sean MacDonald, Steve Maher, Stephanie Peacock, Sean Stafford and Joshua Su
The department’s Minor Caliber Guns ISEA team was recognized for completing major overhauls of the Mark 38 Mod 242 cannons, generating a 91-percent cost savings to PEO (IWS) 3C. The Mark 38 Machine Gun System (MGS) serves as a lethal 25 mm minor caliber gun weapon system employed on several U.S Navy ships, and features a standard Mod 242 Bushmaster cannon.
Several years ago, the ISEA team initiated and implemented a Mod 242 cannon overhaul to help minimize acquisition cost and reduce lead time. To ensure success of the program, the team apportioned and dedicated a 1,440-square-foot space in the Minor Caliber Guns Engineering Lab at the command’s Systems Integration Department in Picatinny, New Jersey, and outfitted it with equipment required for the cannon overhaul operation. In addition to refurbishing old cannon assets on hand, as well as those received from the U.S Army and the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office, the team partnered with the U.S Marine Corps, who converted their gun systems from a standard Mod 242 cannon to an enhanced configuration. As a result of the asset transfers from other agencies, the team drastically reduced the cannon acquisition time from 18 months to approximately one month for Condition Code A refurbished cannons.
NSWC IHD — a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and part of the Navy’s Science and Engineering Establishment — is the leader in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The Division focuses on energetics research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support, and disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access, identify, render safe, recover, exploit, and dispose of explosive ordnance threats.
- NAVSEA -