SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES
SAN DIEGO (March 13, 2024) Amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) was recently awarded the Amphib Quarterly Self- Sufficiency Award, recognizing the Engineering Department and calibration laboratory during a docking selected restricted availability (DSRA) for their ability to execute major milestones under difficult circumstances. Essex pressurized the firemain system ahead of undocking and maintained continuous calibration lab operations as Expeditionary Strike Group 3 (ESG-3) field calibration activity.
During a DSRA, a ship is placed in dry dock to conduct repairs and maintenance. Throughout the dry dock, many systems are shut down such as plumbing, air conditioning, and firemain. The firemain system distributes seawater to key firefighting systems aboard and is essential to enhancing fire safety. Throughout the DRSA, firemain was supplied from the wing walls of the dry dock, commonly known as a temporary service, and was successfully pressurized throughout the ship prior to exiting the dry dock.
On US Navy vessels, sailors are the first responders and installed firefighting systems are relied upon for damage control. Restoration of all eight fire pumps with first time quality was not easy. This feat allowed Essex to transition back to Naval Base San Diego with full firefighting capability, avoiding nearly a million dollars in contracted temporary service costs.
“Pressurizing firemain was a very challenging task,” said Engineman 3rd Class Tyler Rosales. “It was an extremely long evolution and many valves did not operate electrically and had to be operated manually.”
Bringing up firemain would not have been possible without Essex’s calibration lab, which also doubles as ESG-3 field activity for calibration. The calibration lab ensures all electrical and mechanical gear that takes quantitative measurements is reading correctly and operates properly.
“Our forward and aft firemain gauges have to be calibrated routinely, so having a fully functioning calibration lab aboard made the pressurization of firemain one step easier.” said Rosales.
Having a full-functioning calibration lab during a DSRA is complex and comes with many challenges. “The calibration lab has temperature standards to preserve equipment and allow it to function properly, so our team had to find a solution when the ship had no air conditioning during dry dock,” said Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class Kevin Zmudzinski. “We were able to work together and acquire an AC unit to keep the calibration lab up and running.”
The calibration lab’s 13 technicians dedicated 1,092 hours to calibrating 269 pressure, temperature, torque gauges, and electrical and optical dimensional assets. During the first quarter of 2024, the calibration lab completed 4% of the total assets onboard, which was instrumental during a successful Combat Systems Light-Off.
“The calibration lab was imperative in support of the combat systems light off,” said Electronics Technician 3rd Class Corey Linne. “We could just walk downstairs to have multimeters, meggers, voltmeters, etc. calibrated.”
The calibration lab works on Combat Systems’ general-purpose electronic test equipment. Combat systems equipment is essential to Essex’s mission readiness. A major piece of equipment that combat systems own are radars. Without functioning navigation radars, Essex cannot get underway and conduct her mission. Amphibious assault ships provide ship-to-shore movements by helicopter, so properly functioning air radars are crucial assets.
“Combat systems light off along with all other evaluations the ship has to go through before exiting the maintenance phase has been challenging, but the sailors and their hard work make accomplishing difficult milestones possible. Every department on the ship serves a purpose and Essex winning the Amphib Quarterly Self Sufficiency award shows that we truly are a team,” said Electronics Technician 2nd Class Tagg Brewer.
Essex is conducting a maintenance period in San Diego to upgrade many key systems aboard.
For more news from USS Essex, follow us on Facebook, and Instagram at https://www.facebook.com/USSESSEX, https://www.instagram.com/ussessex_lhd2/
https://mobile.twitter.com/USSEssex_LHD2 or visit https://www.surfpac.navy.mil/lhd2.