| By ROBERT C. KLOSTERMAN
Robert C. Klosterman, a former
commanding officer of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN
74), is the program director for the Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier
Integration Center at Newport News Shipbuilding.
In March of this year, when Newport News
Shipbuilding (NNS) broke ground for the Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier
Integration Center (VASCIC), the company also was breaking ground on a new way of doing
business with the Navy.
For the past three decades Newport News
Shipbuilding, located along the James River in Newport News, Va., has been building all of
the nation's aircraft carriers. These mammoth ships, variously described as 90,000 tons
of diplomacy or as 4.5 acres of Sovereign U.S. Territory, are instruments of
peace, weapons of war, and ever-present symbols of America's strong military pride and
continued commitment to a strong national-defense force structure.
The Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and
Carrier Integration Center is where NNS and other defense industry companies will conduct
on-site carrier warfare systems testing, training, and laboratory research for the next
generation of aircraft carriers. The center will house a team of system experts--including
NNS employees, warfare systems developers, program managers, and fleet operators--who will
work together to develop and test advanced-technology systems for aircraft carriers and
other Navy ships, with a goal of reducing cost while increasing capability at the same
time.
VASCIC, scheduled to be operational in
June 2001, will serve as the focal point for the integration of ship systems and the
application of emerging technologies. By doing so, the center will enhance and promote the
quality and competitiveness of Virginia's shipbuilding industry and put Virginia on the
cutting edge of the U.S. shipbuilding industry. The center also is expected to create
hundreds and perhaps thousands of new jobs for the Commonwealth of Virginia, through
employment in the facility itself or as a result of training and operations conducted at
the facility.
Virginia Governor James Gilmore signed
legislation in June 1998 that approved funding for the center. That legislation provides
$58 million over three years to build the facility, and another $40 million to begin its
operation. NNS will build the facility for the Newport News Industrial Development
Authority and will operate the center under the oversight of a board appointed by the
governor. The City of Newport News is providing the building site.
Governor Gilmore, Chief of Naval
Operations Adm. Jay L. Johnson, NNS Chairman and CEO Bill Fricks, and many members of
Virginia's General Assembly as well as numerous state and city officials were on hand for
the VASCIC groundbreaking ceremony in downtown Newport News--on the James River near the
city's Victory Arch, a historic monument erected to honor the Soldiers and Sailors
returning from World War I.
The 230,000 square-foot facility,
complete with an antenna tower and a 200-seat auditorium, will add an impressive new
capability to the Navy's carrier program. The seven-story office tower will house
conference rooms, training classrooms, and a modeling and simulation center. At more than
85,000 square feet the center's laboratory area has the capacity needed to house three
large bays and a receiving area. The facility also will possess barge landing capabilities
and the power, ventilation, air, and cooling systems needed to replicate the
"shipboard" environment of an aircraft carrier.
At the Center's Off Hull Assembly and
Test Site, the hardware and software warfare systems of carriers--both new-construction
ships and those in overhaul--can be staged, assembled, interconnected, integrated, and
tested. This is where the production testing and integration testing of carrier systems
will take place. Fundamentally, VASCIC will focus on a different way to integrate these
systems--primarily by providing integration capability in a more friendly environment at
the carrier construction/overhaul site. This controlled environment also will permit the
insertion of late technology and equipment modifications both more easily and at lower
cost than would have been possible on board the ship.
VASCIC will become part of current
national and Department of Defense networks to facilitate electronics system testing. NNS
has been working to become the first industry member of the NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems
Command) Distributed Engineering Plant (DEP), NAVSEA 05's (deputy commander for warfare
systems') Battle Group interoperability network. As a member of DEP, VASCIC will be able
to link with other systems during the testing and operation of carrier systems.
NNS also is exploring the possibility of
joining the National Test Network, and has signed memorandums of agreement with other Navy
offices and agencies, including the Port Hueneme Division of the Naval Surface Warfare
Center (NSWC), NSWC Dahlgren, and NAVAIR (Naval Air Systems Command), to connect with
their systems and facilities. VASCIC will complement the NAVSEA 05 efforts elsewhere and
play a key role as DEP's latest configuration carrier site.
The center also will be a premier
training facility--conveniently located for the Navy's precommissioning and carrier
overhaul crews, particularly--on new equipment and platform integration. VASCIC also can
serve as a training facility for NNS shipyard workers and for the numerous repair yards in
the Hampton Roads area.
In building the nation's future air-craft
carriers--CVN 77 and the CVNX carriers--VASCIC will, among other things, help Newport News
Shipbuilding meet the following important Navy objectives for its national assets:
- The need for innovation in technology and
business practices;
- The need for flexibility in design and
installation;
- A focus on reducing life-cycle costs, an
emphasis on reduction of both workload and manpower requirements, and improved reliability
and maintenance of equipment and systems;
- Installation of knowledge-based warfare
systems in key command centers to allow better as well as faster decisions--with fewer
people; and
- The requirement for interoperability at
the fleet, joint, and combined levels.
The requirements for CVNX 1, the first
ship in the new post-Nimitz class of carriers, have not yet been fully identified. In its
role as the epicenter for carrier program management, VASCIC can help facilitate the
generation of requirements--and development of solutions--much closer to the fleet. It
also can provide the Navy with a valuable tool in carrier requirements generation and
serve as a meeting place where test engineers and fleet operators can collaborate.
As the Navy evolves toward an
all-electric ship, the Navy's program manager for carriers has stated that the next
generation of carriers will have not only a new propulsion system but also a redesigned
electrical distribution system. VASCIC is being built to provide, among other things, a
high-power test facility for development of the CVNX 1 power-generation and
power-distribution systems.
NNS hosted an industry conference in
March 1999 for companies involved in the development of warfare systems. The goal of the
conference was to brief industry on the acquisition plan for the warfare system of CVN 77,
which will serve as the transition ship to the next-generation aircraft carrier. For the
first time in the history of building carriers in Newport News, NNS will be procuring the
carrier's warfare system. In the past the Navy bought discrete components of the warfare
system through a variety of separate organizations and provided them to NNS as
government-furnished equipment, or GFE. The GFE components would arrive at NNS, be
installed on the carrier, then tested. With VASCIC, NNS and the warfare system providers
have the potential to deliver to the ship a more fully integrated system; that change
alone will improve interoperability and overall cost effectiveness.
By building strong collaborative
re-lationships with Virginia's universities as well as with industry, VASCIC will serve as
a central location for carrier-focused research and development, promoting the
cutting-edge sciences and technologies relevant to the design, development, testing, and
construction of America's future aircraft carriers. The center will give carrier teams the
opportunity to put systems together, work out problems and system deficiencies prior to
ship installation, tie into other systems and facilities, and conduct valuable training
and research and development in conjunction with Virginia universities.
By providing comprehensive new
opportunities--in electronics integration and off-hull assembly and test, power generation
and distribution, training, carrier program management, and research and
development--while creating many new jobs in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Virginia
Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier Integration Center is obviously a win-win investment.
The Commonwealth of Virginia, the Hampton Roads area, the Virginia shipbuilding industry,
Virginia universities, the Navy and Department of Defense, and the nation all stand to
benefit from the end result--namely, a more affordable as well as more capable fleet of
aircraft carriers for the Navy of the 21st century. |
