San Francisco arrives at NNSY for conversion

�an �rancisco for conversion

BY ANNA TAYLOR • PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST PHOTOS BY SHAYNE HENSLEY • NNSY PHOTOGRAPHER USS San Francisco (SSN 711) arrived at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Jan. 25 for its conversion from an operational fastattack submarine into a Moored Training Ship (MTS).

San Francisco is the second of two nextgeneration MTSes to be used for training nuclear officers and Sailors at the Nuclear Power Training Unit in Charleston, South Carolina. NNSY has been converting the first, USS La Jolla (SSN 701) since Feb. 2015.

The two current MTS subs, both commissioned in 1964, have been training nuclear officers and Sailors since their conversions in the early 1990s.

The conversion process, which will last an estimated 728,000 mandays, requires NNSY to make two complete hull cuts, separating the boat into three pieces, recycling the center section, and adding three new hull sections, adding 76 feet to the overall ship length. The new hull sections will arrive from Electric Boat via barge and then be craned into the dock.

The conversion will also include work typical of the engineered overhauls NNSY conducts on other Los Angeles-class submarines.

The San Francisco team’s mindset is a crucial component for the multi-year availability. Project Superintendent Wallace Martin says they are focused on more than just getting the job done.

“We focus first on maintaining our standards in the way we work, including safety, cleanliness, and doing the homework to achieve first time quality,” he said. “We are confident that schedule and cost performance success will be a product of that.”

A project of this nature brings with it a number of unique risks, but the San Francisco project team hopes to leverage the lessons learned from the La Jolla project. The San Francisco team’s safety efforts began more than a year ago with a focus on the five most common causes of injuries on the USS La Jolla conversion.

“It is our challenge to take what has been learned on La Jolla and translate that into strategic and day-to-day actions that result in a positive change in performance for our customers and our nation,” said Martin. “I'm very proud that a new personal protective device (better known as the Slick Hood) developed by one of our zone managers has shipyardwide potential to reduce the occurrence of eye injuries. We're also deploying a new scaffolding system for the dry dock to help make the dock safer and more efficient for everyone. And thanks to the Code 920 [Structural Group] Inside Shop, and our Code 740 [Lifting and Handling Department] crew led by Dave Miskiel, our shiny new hatch houses sit atop the boat already, improving service routing, temperature control, and general cleanliness.”

These improvements are not just a project team initiative. They’re part of a shipyard and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) corporate effort to minimize the difficulties and build on the achievements of the La Jolla project as a Learning Organization.

“One of the major early struggles for La Jolla was outfitting the reactor compartment forward module, which had been delivered as an empty shell for USS La Jolla by General Dynamics Electric Boat. This was hard work that took a lot of NNSY resources to accomplish,” said Martin. “As a result of collaborative effort by a number of stakeholders, NNSY is now expecting the module for San Francisco to be outfitted prior to delivery to ensure we can devote our resources elsewhere. This change requires careful planning as the timing and hull assembly plan will be different in order to make this happen. But in the end, we expect this to be a big win for the shipyard.”

Martin said meeting the shipyard's commitment to provide the second moored training ship is crucial to the nuclear navy's training program. By modernizing the navy’s existing training assets and providing additional training capacity, NNSY helps ensure nuclear ships at sea are provided with fully trained Sailors every year for the next 20 years.

MARCH 2017 • SERVICE TO THE FLEET • 19