By Margaret Kenyon, NSWCPD Public Affairs NSWCPD

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) In-Service Engineering Agents (ISEAs) capitalized on their unique expertise to provide immediate, on-site support in collaboration with Southeast Regional Maintenance Center (SERMC), in Mayport, Fla., to resolve ongoing technical issues for the anchor windlass, slewing arm davit (SLAD), and steering gear on USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) in December 2019. As the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima was approaching the end of a year-long Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) availability maintenance period, SERMC communicated with NSWCPD leadership the need for Philadelphia Division on-site engineering support to better ensure the team made its commitment to the rapidly approaching beginning of sea trials scheduled for mid-December 2019. These sea trials are used to verify the “seaworthiness” of ships and submarines, measuring the vessel’s performance, as well as testing speed, maneuverability, equipment and safety features. They are critical to ensure the safety of the crew and the ship. “IWO departed Sea Trials on Sunday (Dec. 15, 2019) and we certified her availability complete on Wednesday evening (Dec. 18, 2019), which is a huge victory. The NSWCPD team was instrumental in helping us get there,” said Ben Medina, Executive Director, SERMC, in a message to Joe Amadoro, NSWCPD’s Propulsion, Power & Auxiliary Machinery Systems department head. “I would also like to express my gratitude to the team for this support. We realize these types of 11th hour requests are difficult to manage, but this type of support directly aligns with the CNO’s ‘Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority … On Time Delivery of Ships,’” said NSWCPD Deputy Technical Director Chris Savage. When Savage received the SERMC call late on a Thursday afternoon, NSWCPD ISEAs were already starting to troubleshoot the issues in collaboration with the on-site SERMC digital steering controls, anchor windlass, and slewing arm davit representatives. NSWCPD sent its on-site support team in waves to IWO JIMA to properly tackle each issue. Those answering the call included mechanical engineers Rich Bochanski and Jim Fries, electrical engineer Rob Higginbotham, as well as engineering technician Greg Fay. All three systems -- anchor windlass, SLAD and steering gear -- have separate critical functions that if not properly working could impact the safety of the Sailors. (The anchor windlass operates like a winch that deploys and retrieves the ship’s chain and anchor. The SLAD, which is similar to a crane that picks up maritime vessels, is required to launch, recover and stow boats on the ship. The steering gear utilizes a ram assembly to hydraulically actuate the rudder position.) The recently replaced anchor windlass brake release valve was improperly configured on this particular ship, but because of Fries’ knowledge the issue was quickly identified and the valve was disassembled and reconfigured properly, explained NSWCPD’s Aircraft, Vehicle, Ship & Material Handling Branch Head Ken Poole. ”Intimate knowledge of the LHD 1 Class anchor windlass system and an understanding of the recent repairs was key in resolving the problem with the failsafe brake valve,” said Fries, who works with the Anchor Windlass. The SLAD was weight tested with the determination that the emergency manual hoist would be operational to retrieve the boat if a power loss event ever occurred to the davit. Going forward, the system technical manual (TM) will be updated to include emergency slew/gravity lowering procedures. “Our knowledge of the SLAD constant tension feature and emergency operation procedures enabled us to assess risk of boat handling operations and provide mitigation actions to SERMC and the ship,” said Higginbotham, who works directly with the davit. The main issue with the steering gear involved the re-adjustment of servo valves after conducting assessment procedure (AP) card checks on all four hydraulic power units (HPUs) as well as rudder swing rates for all the units. “As a former sailor, it was great to be back on the deckplates working closely with ships force while troubleshooting the steering system and making the necessary servo adjustments. We’re just glad we could do our part,” said Fay, who along with Bochanski provided the trouble shooting on the steering gear. “It was a great job by all. I appreciate all of their schedule adjustments, impacts on weekend plans, and long hours on-site to get the ship ready for underway. Excellent work as always!” added Fran Brennan, NSWCPD Launch, Recovery and Hydraulic Systems branch head. NSWCPD employs approximately 2,700 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel doing research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for Navy ships. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.

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