Ten Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC) Command Control and Intelligence (C2I) Electronics Technicians assisted in completed the Deploying Group Systems Integration Testing (DGSIT) on seven Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 10 ships Dec. 4.

CSG 10 ships include USS Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS San Jacinto (CG 56), USS Monterey (CG 61), USS Stout (DDG 55), USS Franklin Roosevelt (DDG 80), USS Mason (DDG 87) and USS Nitze (DDG 94). DGSIT typically occurs six to eight weeks before a carrier strike group deploys.

According to MARMC C2I Branch Manager Leonard "Ski" Yesalusky, "Up to that point, the ships have been functioning as independent units. In order to check their interfaces to ensure they can communicate, their work orders are satisfactory, and their equipment is completely functional, the carrier and all support ships set out on a group sail to simulate being on deployment."

The 10 MARMC representatives were part of 74 from 13 commands that assisted in the CSG 10 DGSIT. These representatives are the subject-matter experts (SMEs) and are assigned to each ship to support their piece of shipboard equipment.

MARMC C2I Electronics Technician Theodore Kolhagen was aboard Eisenhower to perform system operability testing between the Consolidated Automated Network Enterprise System (CANES) and all other systems that touch the CANES network. CANES is the new electronic computer system that Navy ships are using.

"Eisenhower is the first large deck in the Norfolk area that has CANES installed," said Kolhagen. "All of the other systems that touch the CANES network on board a carrier go through CANES, so I was heavily involved with setting them up and making sure they had connectivity to the network."

Kolhagen worked with other commands' representatives to repair any connectivity or maintenance issues between the systems.

"We support all of the C2I systems on board Navy ships," said Kolhagen. "If any of them ever fail, a casualty report is submitted to us. We will fix the issue, whether it's here locally or overseas, anywhere in our area of responsibility, we take care of it."

The DGSIT team identified 140 separate issues with the strike group's installed Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Collaboration and Intelligence (C5I) systems, correcting 75 of them while at sea and documenting the remainder for action by the responsible program offices ashore.

"DGSIT SMEs provided 1,100 hours of mentorship to 178 Sailors in USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group's C5I systems," said CSG 10 Commander Rear Adm. Jesse Wilson. "Team effort positioned the entire strike group for C5I success during deployment."

"The MARMC C2I techs are phenomenal in the work that they do," said Yesalusky. "They are real go-getters and I couldn't ask for a better group of guys."

For more news from Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center, visit www.navy.mil/.