Amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) completed sea trials after conducting an 11-month shipyard maintenance period June 27.

"It was the culmination of a $77 million maintenance availability that concluded a lot of work from ship's force, Southeast Regional Maintenance Center (SERMC), Norfolk Naval Shipyard and numerous private contractors in Northeast Florida," said Capt. James Midkiff, commanding officer of Iwo Jima.

Iwo Jima's maintenance availability was completed two days early under a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract. Major work completed during the availability included replacement of four steam driven fire pumps; a collection, holding, and transfer (CHT) system flush and repair; Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) installation; flight deck non-skid replacement; 18-month and five-month boiler inspections; repairs and upgrades on all aircraft elevators; and an in-place repair of number two Ship Service Turbine Generator reduction gears and alignment.

Sea trials are conducted after ships complete shipyard maintenance periods to test the ship's systems and to make sure they are ready for deployment.

"Iwo Jima completed a number of required post-maintenance checks and operational evaluation of newly installed and overhauled equipment," said Capt. Joseph O'Brien, executive officer, Iwo Jima.

After spending months working to improve the material readiness of the ship, the crew of the Iwo Jima and hundreds of local maintenance workers can now see the result of their 11 months of work.

SERMC oversaw Iwo Jima's Planned Maintenance Availability (PMA), under a FFP contract leveraging early planning efforts, work package development and lessons learned from previous LHD availabilities to return the ship to the fleet ahead of the availability end date.

"Our maintenance team and crew did a phenomenal job planning and executing the first large deck major maintenance availability in Mayport since the USS John F. Kennedy departed," said O'Brien. "Their commitment to quality maintenance, working hand-in-hand with the shore-based maintenance team and civilian contractors, ensured delivery of a quality product and the smooth completion of underway post-maintenance checks ahead of schedule."

During the underway, Iwo Jima completed several important combat systems, damage control, well deck and engineering evolutions to make sure the ship was ready to return to the fleet.

"Sea trails were an extraordinary success," said O'Brien. "Iwo Jima's crew demonstrated the ability to safely navigate in and out of port, conduct small boat and well deck operations, utilize communication and situational awareness systems, anchor, defend the ship against surface and air threats, conduct damage control and operate propulsion systems at full power."

Iwo Jima is scheduled to start its training and qualification cycle to prepare for her upcoming deployment. The crew seemed excited to be out of the maintenance period and in the open ocean with the ship to test their knowledge and work on their professional skill sets.

"Our Sailors are eager to get back to warfighting," said Cmdr. Autowan Andrews, operations officer. "They are excited to get underway because this marks a culmination of a lot of hard work to get the ship back to operational readiness."

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