Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Advanced Shipyard Technology (AST) Program is at the forefront of an effort to align multiple maintenance centers across the Navy and Marine Corps to more efficiently introduce technologies into depot-level maintenance and repair activities.

The effort began to come together during a conference in Tampa last December when senior executive service (SES) leaders from NAVSEA’s industrial operations, Marine Corps Logistics Command (MARCORLOGCOM), and the Commander Fleet Readiness Centers (COMFRC) for Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) agreed to begin collaborating on opportunities and programs that, until now, have been handled independently. These multiple independent efforts resulted in redundancy, increased costs, and a slower workflow across these organizations.

“Depot maintenance providers have many common problems that can benefit from technology-based solutions,” said Janice Bryant, director of NAVSEA’s Tactical Innovation Implementation Lab (TIIL). “A tank is a tank, whether on a plane, a ship, or a main artillery tank. The elements of inspection, preparation, restoration, and preservation allow the opportunity for comprehensive applications.”

Located on board the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport, the TIIL is NAVSEA’s “think tank,” and seeks new ways to streamline efforts and further a culture of affordability. One of the many projects the TIIL is working on for the AST Program are ways to move past the older 19th and 20th century industrial models. These models evolved during an era when communications and travel time were far more restricted than they are today. Every depot and maintenance activity had to operate relatively independently.

Revolutionizing shipyard agility for the 21st century is a task headed by the Strategic Project Manager, Steve McKee. He and his counterparts in COMFRC and MARCORLOGCOM built a team that could collaborate on improving efforts to align the needs of the multiple agencies through the creation of an initial coordinated sustainment integrated priorities list (IPL).

“With the agreement from December between the senior executives, we worked rapidly to converge a group from the various maintenance depots to Naval Base Coronado,” McKee said. “Representatives from the repair activities and their headquarters met at the end of April and quickly identified many common challenges and created collaboration connections that had previously not existed.”

McKee said a site visit in Coronado provided an illustration of the need for unity and better communication between the various depot-level maintenance organizations in order to increase efficiency and reduce cost.

 “In one instance, we toured a Fleet Readiness Center-Southwest (FRC-SW) production work space for cold spray,” said McKee. “During this tour, the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was surprised to discover that the FRC-SW is using a cold spray repair capability a short distance from the shipyard’s aircraft carrier maintenance activity. There was a follow-on discussion on how to leverage each other’s capabilities for mutual benefit.”

Leveraging existing capabilities will significantly speed NAVSEA’s ability to deliver ships and submarines on time, while also facilitating an environment that empowers its people to develop and implement innovative new ideas for improving the warfighting capability of the Navy’s ships and systems. McKee said another result of this type of depot-level alignment will be the cost savings realized by sharing work, tools, and practices that have already been developed across multiple organizations.

“The team took the opportunity to identify those areas going forward where we should be collaborating and where we have common gaps. Specifically, where should the maintenance activities speak with a unified voice to meet the current and future demands of the Navy,” said McKee.

The team created a draft sustainment IPL to support Navy depot operations. This IPL identifies eight initial priority items ranked by the depots. This will allow them to approach Navy leadership with a unified voice when discussing capability needs.

“The highest priority gap identified by the team was developing expanded expeditionary maintenance capability. We want to be able to fix items as far forward as we can without having to bring them back to our depot sites,” said McKee.

The team’s eventual goal is to build containers filled with mobile, depot-level maintenance equipment able to deploy around the world. These containers, with a remotely connected team of technicians, could then complete repairs of ships and other assets without having to bring the assets back to the U.S. for work. McKee pointed to long-standing capabilities to remotely operate and maintain deployed unmanned aircraft with depot-level support as an example of the success of such expeditionary efforts.

Partnering between the various depots and commands like NAVSEA, COMFRC, and MARCORLOGCOM creates an opportunity for all parties involved to significantly reduce costs while speeding up response time and improving support of the warfighters. In the world of tight budgets and limited resources, increasing affordability alone is a major accomplishment, while increasing the ability of the warfighter to have the tools they need when they need them is the definition of a depot’s mission.

“This group came together eagerly and recognized huge areas of common interest. The creation of the drafted sustainment IPL is one of many successes of this budding team. In follow-on discussions, we are seeing increased sharing and opportunities to improve maintenance for the Navy. With digital tools, with the motivated personalities, and with the geopolitical environment, we have the opportunity to recast and rejig so we are more agile in support of the Navy mission,” McKee said.

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