CNO Launches Reorganization to Standardize Fleet Training

By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

In a move to standardize the training and operations of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Vern Clark has initiated significant new changes in the fleet staffs and formalized others. The changes, effective 1 October 2001, are intended to "cross-pollinate" the two fleets to a greater degree than ever before achieved.

Naval personnel and other observers have noted for decades that differences in training and operating procedures between the two fleets, despite the routine transfer of personnel between them, sometimes left the impression that the U.S. Navy has been in fact operating two separate navies at the fleet level, one east and the other west.

"The objective is that there is not one ounce of difference in the way these units work," said Clark. "The standards that were used to create a trained and ready product were the same regardless of where that training was conducted."

The CNO selected the commander in chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, to hold a concurrent position as commander, United States Fleet Forces Command (CFFC). In that post, the CFFC will be responsible for "overall coordination, establishment, and implementation of integrated requirements and policies for manning, equipping, and training Atlantic and Pacific Fleet units during the interdeployment training cycle (IDTC)," Navy officials said. The commander of the U.S. Third Fleet, responsible for IDTC policies for West Coast units, will report directly to the CFFC on IDTC matters involving those units.

Although the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets each will retain three major type commanders--for their respective aviation, surface, and subsurface warfare communities--the CNO has selected two Pacific Fleet type commanders and one Atlantic Fleet type commander to hold positions of seniority over their counterparts in the other fleet and to be assigned concurrent duties as overall commanders for their warfare specialties. Commander Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, now holds the concurrent responsibilities of commander Naval Air Forces. Commander Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, now also is commander Naval Surface Forces. Similarly, commander Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, now is also commander Submarine Forces. All three of the senior fleet type commanders will head their respective communities and advise CFFC on issues such as "modernization needs, training initiatives, and operational concept development," Navy officials said, and will "provide guidance to their respective forces via the existing lead-follow [type commander] arrangement." The CNO initiative formalizes an earlier lead-follow arrangement that was implemented last year.

In a related development, the commander of the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC) also will report to CFFC "for the purposes of warfare innovation, concept development, fleet and joint experimentation, and the synchronization and dissemination of doctrine." NWDC, headquartered in Newport, R.I., will continue to report to the president of the Naval War College on concept-development processes and to the deputy CNO for warfare requirements and programs on issues of requirements, programs, and transformation.

Navy officials said they expect the new NWDC command relationships will "expand its leading role in Navy experimentation and transformation."

"I still want ... [NWDC] to have a strong tie to the War College and that whole apparatus," said Clark, "but I want them first and foremost connected to the fleet."

USMC Upgrades Engines For CH-46E Helicopter Fleet

The Marine Corps has begun a $200 million program to replace core components in the engines of its fleet of CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters, with the goal of improving the engine reli-ability of the Corps' primary assault transport helicopter.

The T58-16 Engine Reliability Improvement Program (ERIP)--which will be carried out by the Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP) at Cherry Point, N.C.--involves rebuilding the current T58-16 engines with new gas-path modules (engine cores) manufactured by GE Aircraft Engines. The Cherry Point NADEP also will overhaul the remaining engine accessories and complete final assembly of the engines--which, when modified, will be redesignated as T58-16A engines. The prototype T58-16A is scheduled for delivery in the spring of 2002. Production deliveries are scheduled for the middle of fiscal year 2003.

The performance of the old T58-16 engines has suffered from a lack of new components and years of continuous use. By the end of 2000, the average mean time between repair hours had fallen from the original design specification of 900 hours to less than 360 hours, according to officials of the Naval Air Systems Command. The engines also had suffered an average five-percent loss of their designated 1,870-shaft horsepower.

Navy officials said that the ERIP would result in "stronger, more reliable engines while reducing maintenance hours and costs to the fleet." The Navy estimates that the engine's 900-hour mean time between repair specification will be recouped.

Replacement of the CH-46E has been delayed by development problems in the MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.

Cherry Point NADEP Delivers Upgraded Two-Seat Harrier

The first TAV-8B Harrier II to complete an upgrade program has been returned to the Marine Corps' Harrier replacement training squadron. The aircraft was rebuilt under the TAV-8B Upgrade Program (TUP) by a team at the Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP) at Cherry Point, N.C., that included Boeing and British Aerospace engineers.

Only the wiring was replaced on the first two-seat TAV-8B inducted into the NADEP (in July 2000). The aircraft was disassembled and all existing wiring was replaced as the aircraft was rebuilt. The experience gained in rewiring the first aircraft will be used to reduce time and effort in rewiring the second aircraft, officials said. When the third aircraft is inducted into the TUP, it will receive a full upgrade, including the installation of more powerful Pegasus engines, various structural enhancements, and new mission software and night-vision compatibility, to provide Harrier pilot trainees with training that is more representative of the night-attack and radar capabilities of the current fleet of single-seat AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft.

When the TUP is completed, the Corps' Harrier training squadron, Marine Attack Training Squadron 203, will be equipped with 17 night-attack-capable TAV-8Bs.

Sea Service Notes

The Benjamin Franklin-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Kamehameha has been deactivated at Naval Base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The SSN was commissioned in 1965 as one of the original 41 Polaris/Poseidon ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs) and was the last of those hulls in service. In 1992 the Kamehameha was converted to an SSN with the specific assignment of supporting special operations forces. She was equipped for that mission with dry-deck shelters to transport equipment for SEALs.

A Super Hornet strike fighter has launched an AGM-154 JDAM (Joint Direct-Attack Munition) for the first time. An F/A-18E--assigned to the Naval Weapons Test Squadron at China Lake, Calif.--flew at 550 knots and 7,000 feet and released a JDAM that knocked out a howitzer with its 2,000-pound BLU-109 penetrator warhead.