TRIDENT II D5 BACKFITS

By HOWARD G. KRAMER

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard modernizes the sea-based U.S. deterrent force.

Howard G. Kramer is the D-5 missile project business officer at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

On the warm and clear Saturday of 16 March 2002, official guests and other observers of the Ohio-class fleet ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) USS Alaska gathered aboard the surveying ship USNS Waters off the coast of Florida to witness an important Navy Demonstration and Shakedown Operation (DASO). At approximately 4:00 p.m. the assembled group had the privilege of witnessing the successful launching from the Alaska of a Trident II D5 missile. The launch was important because Alaska is the first Ohio-class Trident SSBN to be retrofitted to the Trident II D5 configuration from its earlier Trident I C4 missile configuration. The successful execution of the DASO, carried out by members of the Alaska Gold crew, marked not only the beginning of the end of the Trident I C4 missile era, but also the successful completion of the first of four Ohio-class Trident D5 backfits being accomplished by the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNSY) in Bremerton, Wash. The successful DASO also reflected the countless hours spent by both public and private-sector activities, and by Alaska Blue and Gold crewmembers, who participated in the design, planning, execution, and testing associated with the D5 backfit program.

Original Design Package Foresaw Need for Upgrading

The original design requirements of the Ohio-class SSBN took into account the need to support future upgrading for the Trident II D5 missiles and support systems. The first eight Trident SSBNs were outfitted with the Trident I C4 missile and support systems, but the Navy's intention from the start was to backfit all of these submarines with newer Trident II D5 missiles and support systems--when they became available.

In September 1997, the Navy tasked Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to begin developing a strategy for executing the Trident II D5 backfits as part of the Alaska Engineered Overhaul (EOH). The Navy also tasked the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics to complete the Trident II D5 backfit design package that had been in various stages of development since the mid-1980s. The taskings included an additional requirement--to use commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) items in the design package where possible. Using COTS equipment led to a major reduction in costs and ensured that the most updated technology would be used during the backfits.

The herculean design effort that followed provided PSNSY with over 1,000 design products needed to support the D5 backfit installation and included revisions to several thousand drawings. Electric Boat also was tasked to procure, package per work-unit sequences, and ship to Puget Sound thousands of line items of government furnished material/equipment for each D5 backfit.

The line items were shipped from numerous points throughout the continental United States. Puget Sound's Engineering and Planning Department, Electric Boat, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the Navy's Strategic Systems Program (SSP) office, and numerous SSP support contractors collaborated to develop a "just-in-time" delivery schedule for the design products and materials. The initial delivery schedule fully supported the planning and execution schedules being developed by PSNSY.

One Team, One Plan

In January 1999, the project manager appointed for the Alaska EOH began to assemble his project management team to plan and execute the 19-month availability, which was scheduled to start on 1 May 2000. It would be the first major submarine availability started at Puget Sound since the USS Ohio EOH in fiscal year 1993. The Alaska EOH was to be the first of four Trident II D5 backfits scheduled to be conducted by the Navy's only West Coast shipyard. The Alaska project management team consisted of personnel from PSNSY, the Alaska's ship's force, Submarine Squadron Seventeen, and Naval Intermediate Maintenance Facility Pacific Northwest Bangor (NAVIMF PACNORWEST).

One of the first decisions made by PSNSY was to invoke, as much as practical, the NAVSEA Baseline Project Management Plan (BPMP) that was then under development (and subsequently issued, in July 1999). The BPMP was introduced to improve SSN 688 Los Angeles-class submarine performance, but the disciplined planning processes reflected in the plan were applicable to the backfit project as well.

One of the major challenges facing the project management team was that of work force integration. A total of 17 organizations (eight private, and nine public-sector) participated in the planning, execution, and testing phases of the availability. To further increase the challenge, these 17 organizations received funding from three separate activities, each with different budgeting priorities. The Trident II D5 backfit accounted for approximately 55 percent of the workload; the remaining 45 percent included periodic maintenance (by the ship's force), intermediate and depot-level maintenance, and the installation of numerous modernization alterations, not all of which were conjunctive to the Trident II D5 backfit.

The ship's force continued to perform routine periodic maintenance, and NAVIMF PACNORWEST continued to plan and carry out most of the intermediate-level maintenance. PSNSY planned and executed all of the Trident II D5 backfit, most of the modernization alterations, and depot-level maintenance, as well as those parts of the intermediate-level maintenance program that would be affected by the D5 backfit.

Prior to the start of the availability Alaska Blue and Gold crews were combined into a single crew. A combined crew was needed to accomplish mandatory training and recertification requirements, accomplish ship's force periodic maintenance, and provide the enormous amount of support required by the project management team during the execution and testing phases of the availability.

A facilities management team also was established, primarily to ensure: (a) that PSNSY material stowage/laydown areas and facilities would be ready to support the needs of the multifaceted EOH; and (b) that movement of materials via rubber-tired or rail vehicles would accommodate the size and weight requirements of some of the larger equipment items associated with the backfit--e.g., active inert missiles, launch-tube liners, and ballast cans. Working with NAVSEA, SSP, and Electric Boat, the project management team made the arrangements needed to have D5 facilities-support equipment delivered to PSNSY. Air Force C5A transport flights, manned by Air Force reservists, were organized to air-freight the equipment from various points of origin and then transfer it to tractor-trailers for delivery to Puget Sound, where it was inspected, assembled, and made ready for operation.

Innovating for Success

The project management team formed a process improvement team to undertake the challenge of reviewing all of the submarine work processes used. The team's goal was to streamline and/or redefine those processes that could be updated to support the work necessary to complete the Alaska EOH on time, within budget, and with no sacrifices in quality. One of the team's major focus areas was the movement of the extraordinary amounts of material associated with the D5 backfits. Eventually, the team approved a total of 14 process improvements.

PSNSY undertook the design, manufacture, and certification of jib/box style cranes to be placed over the forward and mid-ships Logistic Escape Trunk (LET) accesses. The use of jib/box cranes allowed loads of up to 10,000 lbs. to be moved from the lowest levels of the ship to topside areas without the use of portal type cranes. The loads then could be placed directly on mobile carts that were part of a virtual material highway system that extended to the edge of the drydock. A load then could easily be rolled down to the drydock edge, where it was picked up by forklift, put on a truck or other vehicle, and moved to any other site in the PSNSY. This process significantly reduced the number of portal crane lifts required.

A temporary portable monorail system also was designed, and installed in the lower level of the missile compartment to provide ease of movement of equipment from the compartment to the area under the LET, where it could be removed by the jib crane and highway system.

A trailer-mounted D5 ballast-can transportation fixture design also was approved and certified, to allow "over the highway" transportation of ballast-cans on public highways. (The only previously certified mode of public transportation that had been approved was via rail car.)

Electric Boat developed an interpack-controlled hydraulic jacking fixture to support the removal of launch-tube liners. This fixture was strong enough to apply the breakaway force that might be required to remove an installed C4 liner from its launch-tube assembly.

The Remaining Backfits

All of the innovations developed and the planning and execution strategies undertaken for the first of the D5 backfits were approved with the needs of the three remaining backfits taken into consideration. A major consideration in the development of the planning and execution strategies, for example, took into account that the SSBN USS Nevada's EOH, planned for FY 2001, would start only nine months after the start of the Alaska's EOH. The lessons learned during Alaska's EOH, therefore, would contribute in various ways to the success of the Nevada EOH.

In January 1999 another project superintendent was assigned to the Nevada EOH. This allowed the concurrent development and review of the planning and execution products for both EOHs and ensured the incorporation in the second EOH of the lessons learned from Alaska's EOH. Once this was accomplished the planning and execution products were rolled over for use by the Nevada project management team. This immediately contributed to major "up front" cost savings in the Nevada EOH and allowed the Nevada project team to assist in the "innovating for success" strategies associated with the entire Trident II D5 backfit program.

The Alaska's EOH was completed seven days ahead of schedule (18 months, three weeks). The Nevada EOH is on track to complete approximately two months early (17 months), and 36,000 mandays under budget. The Ohio-class SSBNs USS Henry M. Jackson and USS Alabama are currently scheduled for backfits during their refueling overhauls in fiscal years 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Use of COTS equipment reduced the size of the D5 navigation suite significantly, allowing for a complete reconfiguration of the ship's navigation center and the development of a new Analysis and Miscellaneous Equipment room. COTS equipment also was used, but to a lesser degree, for some of the command-and-control system modernization alterations, principally the installation of a new-generation radar suite. The use of COTS equipment greatly reduces the requirements previously imposed on existing support systems, such as ventilation, cooling water, and electric power supplies.

Many of the other process and equipment improvements developed for the D5 backfits--e.g., the jib cranes, material highways, and launch-tube liner jacking fixtures--will be used during the conversion of the four oldest Trident SSBNs to the SSGN configuration. Two of the conversions will be carried out at Puget Sound, and the other two at the Norfolk (Va.) Naval Shipyard. The ballast-can over-the-highway transportation fixtures will be used by the Strategic Weapons Support Facilities of the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets. Significant decreases in the time taken up by ballast-can movements will be attained by use of these fixtures.

In short, the process improvements and lessons learned during the Alaska and Nevada backfits will benefit the Navy far into the future. And the members of the PSNSY project management team will continue to hone their skills and work toward further improvements when they perform future Trident work. *