San Francisco is in the final stages of an MTS conversion and will be used for training by Sailors and officers at the Nuclear Power Training Unit in Charleston, South Carolina. It will join La Jolla (MTS 701), which completed conversion in November 2019, as the second of the Navy’s next generation MTSs.

The timely diesel generator testing allowed San Francisco to stay on schedule for towing to South Carolina.

“This is a great milestone for the project,” said NNSY Commanding Officer Capt. Dianna Wolfson. “From start to finish, the project team, along with MARMC and ship’s force completed integrated diesel testing in 26 days, a significant improvement on La Jolla’s testing period.”

MARMC Diesel Inspectors provide intermediate maintenance support and technical services support for main propulsion diesel engines and ship’s service and emergency diesel generators in support of Fleet Readiness for all ships, submarines, and aircraft carriers.

“It was an extra ordinary team effort,” said MARMC Diesel Inspector Scott Bannon. “We had to remove all the injection pumps off of one engine. We had to take them off, inspect them, test them, calibrate and reinstall them. Normally takes at least a week, the diesel shop got it done in three days with our assistance.”

San Francisco ship’s force was also heavily involved in the efforts. The junior Sailors took advantage of the opportunity to work and train with MARMC’s technical experts.

“Seventy-five percent of our job is training Sailors,” said MARMC Diesel Inspector Ron Caron. “Anytime we do a diesel inspection, we’re there to look at the engine and assess the condition, but we’re also there to train the crew and help them understand the engines a little better.”

MARMC, a directorate under Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), provides surface ship maintenance, management and oversight of private sector maintenance and fleet technical assistance to ships in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and provides support to the fifth and sixth Fleet Area of Responsibilities. They are also responsible for the floating dry-dock Dynamic (AFDL-6).