YOKOSUKA, Japan – Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center (SRF-JRMC) completed emergent assessments and repairs aboard Coast Guard National Security Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) recently after the vessel experienced a Class B Fire.
The fire occurred during operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, Sept. 19, 2020. The ship’s crew swiftly contained and extinguished the fire, and the damage required the ship’s transit from their operational area to Fleet Activities Yokosuka.
There, SRF-JRMC commenced 65 emergent structural, mechanical, and electrical inspections of the fire-damaged spaces. The findings were submitted to the United States Coast Guard (USCG) technical representatives to prepare for subsequent depot repairs. Additionally, SRF-JRMC identified immediate critical repairs, corrected underway-limiting damage, and restored Waesche to operational condition for her safe return to homeport in Alameda, California.
“As you can image the US Coast Guard does not have a logistics footprint in Yokosuka, at all in Japan. So we were wholly reliant on our partnership with NAVSEA and SRF to do the repairs,” said Rear Admiral Nathan Moore, USCG, during the Surface Navy Association symposium, held January (11-15). “That work was successfully completed and that ship was able to get back to her home in California before the end of the calendar year. That entire process helped us learn about battle damage repair and how we do things like fire response.”
Working with on-site technical representatives, the repair team planned, executed, and certified repairs to vital and non-vital lighting systems, fire detection systems, the controllable pitch propeller's head tank, main propulsion diesel engine hoses, and aft main machinery room’s exhaust vent fans. Over 10,000 man-hours of emergent labor were expended to complete the work between production shops, engineers and subject matter experts working to identify and execute repairs.
“The SRF-JRMC team worked hand-in-hand with ship’s force to safely and successfully make this happen, all while concurrently executing other ships’ availabilities as scheduled and adhering to health protection regulations in a COVID-19 environment,” said Capt. Neil Sexton, SRF-JRMC commanding officer.
SRF-JRMC provides ship maintenance and modernization for Naval Sea Systems Command, using advanced industrial techniques to keep the U.S. 7th Fleet operationally ready.