What is EXWC up to?

BRAVO ZULU on a job well done as we close out this fiscal year!

Tank Liner Concrete Shell Basalt

EXWC is Awarded Research Contract for Upgrading Red Hill Bulk Fuel Facility

NAVFAC EXWC is pleased to announce the execution of an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) with Gaztransport & Technigaz North America Inc. Under the OTA, GTTNA will investigate the feasibility of and develop a concept to adapt an existing commercial membrane technology upgrade to fuel storage tanks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility near Honolulu, Hawaii. An agreement execution provided by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) under a competitive commercial solutions opening solicited interest from nontraditional contractors to develop solutions that address national security challenges. The DIU facilitated rapid collaboration between NAVFAC EXWC and industry using an OTA.

Got Terns? Using Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Monitoring

Personnel from NAVFAC EXWC’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) program (Jean Pan, Kyle Abrahamsen, Christian Bowers, and Joey Trostky) spent the summer flying UAS to monitor nesting colonies of the Federally endangered California least terns at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu. This was the third year of data collection on nesting California least terns at Point Mugu. In the initial years, the UAS program established that UAS flights appeared to have very little effect on nesting California least terns, as they continued to exhibit their normal behaviors. Working with NIWC LANT and funded by the Naval Innovative Science and Engineering Program, data from the first two years were used to develop and train a machine-learning algorithm to identify adult terns in the UAS imagery. This year’s data will be used to test the developed algorithm, improve the user interface, and transition this machine learning algorithm to Navy and non-Navy entities.

The monitoring of Federally listed species is conducted to understand the status of the species and to allow for more effective species management. The use of UAS for species monitoring will support the ability of installations and Navy lands to continue to provide the capacity and capability to support Navy mission functions and testing and training.

Hoorah to a Great FY20!

Team EXWC, BRAVO ZULU on a job well done as we close out this fiscal year! On September 24, EXWC leadership offered a small token of appreciation by handing out Valentino’s sandwiches across Ventura County. If you were lucky enough to snag a sandwich before they were out, leadership hopes you enjoyed them. They were delicious! For those of you who stopped by for some office camaraderie and to see some familiar faces—thank you. It was great to see our EXWC team and we look forward to making that a regular occurrence. A special thank you to Frank Dellalibera, Jessica Hay, EA2 Viktoria Thompson, Elaine Didomizio, Kim Brusoe, Joe Culhane and Ron Tsumura for the work they did executing the event. September’s end of the fiscal year event was hosted as recognition of leadership’s appreciation for the work every EXWC team member has done, and continues to do. Onto another year of great EXWC success!