OONN CCUSHIONUSHION the LCAC bulletin October 2010 Inside On Cushion From the COs 5 View from the Bridge 6 LCAC CRAFTRON 7 At the Cutting Edge: ACU 4 9 At the Cutting Edge: ACU 5 Featuring LCACs 10 Operation Unified Response 14 NSWC-PCD Skirt and Fan Tests 16 MLP Testing with LCAC 18 Dawn Blitz 20 LCAC AADS System 21 SSC TDP Certification 22 What’s Happening at ACU 5 24 RIMPAC 26 Around the Fleet 29 ACU 4 IA Command Notes 32 ACU 4 Maintenance 35 ACU 5 Maintenence 39 West Pac Alfa 42 ACU 4 Deployments 46 ACU 5 Deployments 50 ACU 4 Supply 51 ACU 5 Supply 52 ACU 4 Training 54 ACU 5 Training 56 ACU 4 Sailors of the Year 57 ACU 5 Sailors of the Year 58 Hails and Farewells On Cushion 2010 the LCAC Bulletin On Cushion, the LCAC bulletin, provides information and tells human interest stories to members of the LCAC community. It is published for the annual Fleet Support Conference, held this year from 19-21 October 2010 at ACU 4. Contributors: PMS377: Captain Chris Mercer PMS377J: Brooks Farnsworth ACU 4: Captain Ken Levins ACU 5: Captain Brad Smith On-site Reps: Joe Greene and Dave Ihlenfeld Editor-in Chief: J.R. Owens Editors: Heather Claggett and Emily MacDonnell Unless otherwise stated, all stories and photos were submitted by sailors and representatives at ACUs, ISEAs, or supplied by Navy Newsstand. Please submit stories, photographs, and requests to be put on the mailing list for future issues to Brooks Farnsworth, PMS377J, at [email protected]. The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Department of the Navy. Articles, letters, queries, and comments should be directed to: Department of the Navy, Program Executive Office Ships, Attn: Code PMS377J, 1333 Issac Hull Avenue, SE, Washington Navy Yard, DC 20376-2101. View from the Bridge or almost four years, I watched our LCAC Community over- contract to build SSC. Fcome all manner of adversity to achieve unparalleled success in managing and sustaining our aging fleet of craft. Challenged I am tremendously proud of by increasingly limited budgets, craft equipment issues, and ex- that success. Regretfully, traordinary mission demands, you always came through, often in however, by the time you creative ways, to keep our LCAC Fleet ready to go to complete read this, my four year tour the mission. True to your hallmark, the key to that success was at the helm of this program teamwork, with all of our government and contractor players will have ended. Though I working together to integrate the many diverse parts of our or- have left the program, I did ganizations into an effective team. so with a strong sense of satisfaction and pride in my Flying missions in every part of the world, our LCAC continued association with a superb to prove their value to the Fleet during operations such as Bright program and a tremen- Star 2009 and Enduring Freedom, demonstrating their ability to dously dedicated group of support our allies by moving Marines and their equipment from professionals who always ship to shore; and in humanitarian missions, as they did immedi- strove to enhance the capa- Captain Jeff Riedel ately after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, when LCAC quickly bilities and performance of LCAC and for whom I will always brought relief supplies ashore, ferried injured Haitians to and have the utmost respect and admiration. from the USS BATAAN for medical treatment and assisted locals with I leave you in the most capable hands of CAPT Chris Mercer, a both relief and recovery efforts. long time friend and superb Naval Officer. Although the future will continue to challenge you, I know that your legacy of per- In the year since our last Fleet Support Conference, three craft formance, professionalism, and team work, under his leadership, completed the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), helping will sustain this program and continue to rise to all challenges in ensure we will continue to have mission capable craft until the meeting the needs of our Naval Team. Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) enters the Fleet. Last spring, our SSC Team completed the first Navy in-house ship-craft Contract Thank you for making my tour as Program Manager both memo- Design in more than a decade and produced the SSC Technical rable and a success. Data Package that will enable release of a Request for Proposal (RFP) that will lead to award of a Detail Design and Construction I wish you all fair winds and following seas. s I approach the half way point in my first year as Program prototype will not com- AManager of PMS377, I continue to be impressed by the pro- plete until 2016 and the fessionalism of the LCAC Community. I was able to visit many Fleet will not begin to see of you in conjunction with the turnover process and what I saw SSC until about 2020. I was a tremendously dedicated, highly capable team, ready to deal don’t have to tell you how with budget constraints, equipment issues and expanding mission critical the LCAC SLEP is roles to ensure that this fast-paced program remains responsive to in that scenario. Over the the needs of the Navy as LCAC continue to prove their value in next year we will induct both operational and humanitarian mission settings. three more craft into SLEP and continue to plan SLEP Already, in the short time I have been aboard, we have inducted indoctrinations for other four craft, LCAC 46, 62, 34, and 79 into SLEP. The ISEAs have craft in the Fleet. We will started developing a General Gas Turbine Bulletin (GGTB) to also develop and release specify procedures to retrofit ETF40B engines to correct existing the FY 11/12 SLEP Solici- 3rd and 6th stage design defects and have begun taking delivery tations next spring. of repaired TF40B/ETF40B 4th stage turbine nozzles to support Captain Chris Mercer repair of fleet failures. The FY10 SLEP contract has also been As I embark on this tour as your Program Manager, I have seen awarded. Several craft have gone through FMP availabilities and firsthand the quality of work and the dedication that underlies been upgraded with new equipment and modifications. your excellent record of service and I am proud to, now, be a part of your community. I look forward to working with each of you As I look to the future, I am equally excited about what I see on in finding new and innovative ways to solve our ongoing chal- the horizon. Having put the finishing touches on a Technical lenges and sustain the incredible record of accomplishments you Data Package and released the RFP, the Ship-to-Shore Connector have achieved in this unique and important program. (SSC) Program is poised to move on to the constructing and test- ing phase. Even though the program is moving quickly, the first Keep up the great work! the LCAC bulletin 5 LCAC CRAFTRON n Oct. 5, 2009, I was honored to become the first com- were maintained in a Omodore of the newest Class Squadron with the establishment very high state of readi- of the Assault Craft Readiness Squadron (CRAFTRON), within ness and made signifi- the Surface Warfare Enterprise. cant contributions to our Nation’s efforts to get The CRAFTRON is in its first phase of life and is staffed almost affected areas back on entirely by members of the Naval Beach Group TWO staff in a their feet. collateral duty capacity, with critical material expertise provided by Sailors from the LCAC and LCU communities. Assault Craft Unit Sailors have the same With the divestiture of the historic readiness role of the concerns as the rest of Amphibious Groups (PHIBGRUs), senior Navy leadership from the Surface Navy, the surface warfare community saw a need for a better alignment mainly manpower and of resources, functions, and requirements within the assault craft money. We’re just community in order to sustain readiness among assault craft standing up, but activities on the east coast, west coast and in Japan. ultimately the CRAFTRON will pro- The CRAFTRON was established as a one-year experiment. vide high quality readi- Our first priority was to establish baselines for key assault craft ness analysis to the Commodore Clay Saunders readiness metrics. Analysis of this readiness data will drive our SWE to ensure our units receive the personnel and financial re- initial readiness priorities. sources necessary to maintain and, where possible, improve war- fighting readiness. The CRAFTRON will examine processes and organizations across the LCAC and LCU support structures to identify process Our top priority is not saving money, but to maintain the combat improvements with the goal of improved war-fighting readiness. readiness of our aging fleet of Assault Landing Craft. However, Additionally, the CRAFTRON bridges the gap between SWE in today’s fiscal environment, no one can have a 'readiness at any stakeholders and the assault craft fleet while serving as a process cost' mentality. As good stewards of the taxpayer dollar, we must integrator that tracks manning, maintenance, logistics, and all be efficient and effective in our spending plans in order to associated training to identify and analyze class-wide trends. provide war-fighting readiness at the best value. Initial positive results from the CRAFTRON include As the CRAFTRON gains experience, I believe assault craft improvements in the financial and manning areas. In the fall of Sailors will play an important role in the squadron’s success The 2009, the CRAFTRON did a “deep dive” to examine funding CRAFTRON was established with no increase in staffing, and we differences and budget disparities between the East and West are dependant on Assault Craft Unit Sailors to provide the Coasts.