Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Keyport hosted the In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) of the Future forum to increase collaboration and add new best practices into the ISEA community Sept. 10-11.

ISEAs are civilian engineers who work directly with the fleet to repair, maintain and ensure the sustainability of equipment and systems used by Navy and Marine Corps warfighters. They're are a critical component of Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) effort to lead the Navy in meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

“These technical forum events provide opportunities for collaboration across all warfare centers, industry and academia,” said David Snodgrass, NUWC Division, Keyport’s In-Service Engineering Department’s Undersea Warfare Systems Engineering Division manager. “The focus is to infuse newer technology into the In Service Engineering community and practice to better support our warfighters.”

Representatives of more than 50 Navy activities, universities and private companies participated in to enhance the partnerships enabling the ISEA community function.  Some of the organizations attending included the Naval Sea Logistics Center, Naval Warfare Command – Atlantic, Naval Air Systems Command, Georgia Tech, the Applied Research Lab at Penn State University, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Captain Jon H. Moretty, commanding officer of NUWC Division Keyport, said this particular forum focused on additive manufacturing and advanced repair technologies and how they can be employed by ISEAs.

“NUWC Division Keyport is the lead agency for undersea additive manufacturing,” said Moretty.  “We hosted the effort here and are participants in the forum and the associated workshops.”

NAVSEA maintains a strategic vision called “Campaign Plan 2.0” that guides the efforts of all its subordinate commands, such as NUWC Division Keyport. The ISEA of the Future forum is intended to lead the ISEA community into tighter alignment with several of Campaign Plan 2.0’s pillars such as speeding the on-time delivery of ships and submarines, improving the warfighting capability of ships and systems, and empowering NAVSEA’s personnel by equipping them with the best tools and practices for the job.

“The ISEA of the Future is focused on moving the future to now, through urgency in action,” said Moretty. “In order to accelerate sustainability and readiness to the fleet, the ISEA enterprise must be willing to shake the trees to deliver ‘fruit’ to the operators, balancing technical risk with operational risk and availability.”

Snodgrass said the ISEA of the Future effort aligns with not only NAVSEA’s Campaign Plan 2.0 vision, but also with the efforts of James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy (Research, Development, and Acquisition) to speed up the procurement and deployment of tools to the warfighters.

“Much of legacy ISEA processes is mired in past investment and processes which are difficult to change once a system is fielded,” Snodgrass said. “We are working to make systems more available for the warfighter by leveraging better support tools and processes in spite of the legacy friction.”

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