By Geoff Fein
The Navy is in the midst of Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trials (CSSQT) on the USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) and the ship has undergone successful testing of its hull, and mechanical and electrical systems (HM&E), according to a Navy official.
Additionally, combat system modernization efforts on the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) are going exceedingly well, Rear Adm. Terry Benedict, program executive officer integrated warfare systems (PEO IWS), told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
“Overall both the Bunker Hill for Aegis, and Nimitz for the Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS)…both of those programs went exceedingly well,” Benedict said.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] builds the Aegis combat system. Raytheon [RTN] builds SSDS.
Benedict was in San Diego early in April and spent a morning with the Nimitz‘s combat systems officer (CSO) as well as the general combat systems staff. He said the crew were very happy with the way testing has gone with SSDS.
“We already did our missile shots off the Nimitz. She did RAM (rolling airframe missile) and ESSM (Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile) CSSQT off of there,” he added. “SSDS is very, very stable and proceeding right down the path.”
The Aegis modernization effort on Bunker Hill is also proving to be very stable, Benedict added. “We have been out three times, three underways, for HM&E and combat systems testing. All were very, very successful. We’ve exceeded the stability time line while we were at sea in terms of the system being up and stable.”
Additionally, Benedict noted the Navy is on track to meet the service’s maximum thresholds in the lab…things that can’t be done at sea. “Because you can’t create an environment that has so many things happening…guns, ASW (anti-submarine warfare), number of tracks…that’s a lab-only environment.”
“So we are right on track to do that,” he said.
Gun integration testing on Bunker Hill also went very well, Benedict said. “That was one of the big parts of what we were doing, so we are on track to go back to sea…on [April] 13th, for the Bunker Hill CSSQT.”
CSSQT on Bunker Hill began in April and runs into June.
The modernization efforts on the Bunker Hill will provide lessons learned for future cruiser upgrade work, Benedict said.
“We are taking everything that we did on Bunker Hill and we are already deep into the planning for CG-53 (USS Mobile Bay) and CG-58 (USS Philippine Sea), which are the next two cruisers as part of the cruiser modernization,” he said.
According to Benedict, the plan is to do the first two cruiser modernizations in San Diego and the third one in Jacksonville, Fla. The cruiser modification effort will also bring work to Norfolk, Va., Benedict added.
“The 53 will be done in San Diego, so we expect to see some of the learning curve there. Very shortly, we’ll do one in Jacksonville. It’s a little bit different than San Diego in terms of contract types, industrial base…so we are monitoring that very carefully so that we port every lesson learned from San Diego down to Jacksonville,” Benedict said. “Because we then have to port it into Norfolk, and we don’t want to reinvent the wheel every time we do a ship. So part of this entire effort is to ensure we document what went right to identify what could have gone better and to ensure that we are taking steps to ensure what could have gone better. We have proper planning in place…mitigation in place…to ensure we are always on a positive learning curve.”
Additionally, he added the Navy is happy with not only the software integration on Bunker Hill, but the ability to do all of this work in a very short time frame.
“We are very, very pleased with not only the software but also the fact we are doing this modernization in a very compressed time frame…the hardware-software swap…integration…and then ultimately out for test and delivery back to the operator. It really couldn’t have gone any better,” Benedict said.
The cruiser modernization, more commonly referred to as advanced capability build (ACB) 08, is a massive amount of work, coordinating the HM&E with the combat systems and the orchestration that goes with that, he said. “If you look at the amount of work we’ve compressed into this modernization period, it’s actually very, very impressive.”
The end goal is not only to modernize the cruiser’s HM&E and combat systems but to do so within the modernization time frame and not run over schedule and cause an impact to the fleet, Benedict said. “It’s a very tight drumbeat.”
“We don’t try to do all the work all at once. We try to get some of the work done in one period, but the ship still has to be operational,” he added.
The end result is that the cruisers come in to begin modernization, go back to see, and then return for more work, Benedict explained.
“And each ship is a little different…how are we optimizing the ship schedules with maintenance periods, our availabilities to get on that ship…so we are really sort of customizing to minimize fleet impact,” he said. “It’s sort of a very methodical work up to that integration of the combat systems piece, but there is a huge amount of HM&E done prior to that. So the modernization is done in a manner kind of to minimize the fleet impact and keep the assets operational.”