Agency charged with long-term health of ships

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The deputy commander of surface warfare for Naval Sea Systems Command admits that the Surface Ship Life Cycle Management Activity’s duties aren’t glamorous, but he insists it’s important to making sure the fleet, including ships such as the amphibious dock landing ship USS Georgetown (above), lasts.


Agency charged with long-term health of ships
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Mar 14, 2009 11:30:47 EDT

The Navy’s first office dedicated to keeping ships around as long as possible will stand up at East and West Coast waterfronts by early May and begin to provide details for how to get the most good out of the fleet.

The Surface Ship Life Cycle Management Activity, which will fall under the aegis of Naval Sea Systems Command, will determine the best ways for ships to reach their full service lives, said Rear Adm. James McManamon, deputy commander of surface warfare for NavSea. It’s not glamorous, but it’s vital, he said.

“Corrosion is not a very sexy subject,” McManamon said. “But it’s critical to me that I don’t (miss) a mission because the hull of my ship isn’t going to hold up.”

The management activity — which will have about 50 people at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., and a detachment of about 20 at Naval Base San Diego — won’t take the place of the Board of Inspection and Survey, McManamon said, or ship-class squadrons. It has a longer view.

“I’m not interested in whether the fire pump works — today — although somebody {is); I want to know whether the piping that supports that fire pump works as well today as it does when the ship was built,” he said.


Rest of artiocle at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/03/navy_shiplife_031409/%2e