The Shuttle
USS Enterprise (CVN 65)
Newsletter Edition
March 21, 2012 Issue
“We are Legend”
Enterprise Sailors Conduct Missile Upload Story and photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Scott Pittman
Sailors aboard aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) conducted an ammunition upload for multiple weapons systems used in shipboard defense March 15-17. Enterprise is equipped with two phalanx close-in weapons systems (CIWS), two NATO Sea Sparrow Missile Systems, and two Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) mounts. “Our primary responsibility, as Combat Systems, Weapons Division, is ship’s self-defense; meaning if the tactical action officer needs us to destroy a threat to the ship, we are able to register a threat and neutralize it,” said Ensign John Tatro, fire control officer for Enterprise. “With us, ensuring everything is operating properly and safely is a key concern.” In order to arm the weapons systems of Enterprise, Sailors with Combat Systems department must follow proper procedures to ensure the ammunition used to defend the ship does not harm the crew in the process. “There are a lot of safety precautions we take in order to ensure the safety of the ordnance handlers and the crew,” said
Chief Fire Controlman John Tuley. “Our ordnance handlers have to become qualified, we hold a safety briefing before the actual ammunition loading, and we have safety observers onscene while loading, among other personal safety precautions.” During the upload, the ship sets Hazardous Electromagnetic MISSILE continued on page 2
Surface Fleet’s ‘Huge Shift’ Includes Tougher Inspections, Revamped Training By Sam Fellman and Gidget Fuentes, NAVY TIMES surface Navy’s top flag officers and lays After years of mounting concerns out all assessments, certifications and that short-staffed crews and a rapid inspections ships will have complete, operational pace were wearing down the from the shipyard through the training fleet, the surface Navy has revamped the 27-month training and maintenance cycle phase and into deployment. More than 60 ships have trained under the pilot version between ship deployments, adding new of the readiness cycle, which will become inspections and a phased approach to the fleet standard beginning this summer, ensuring ships are ready for sea. officials said. The new plan, known as the Ships will undergo one big material Surface Force Readiness Manual, inspection per cycle, along with seven establishes standards for the surface progressive readiness evaluations. fleet’s maintenance and training and This new plan doesn’t extend to is a blueprint for the interdeployment aircraft carriers, whose readiness is cycle. It was approved March 9 by the
managed by Naval Air Forces, or littoral combat ships, which rely on rotational and module-based crewing. It also doesn’t apply to forward-deployed ships, which have a heightened state of mission readiness. But for the rest of the fleet, the readiness manual is the new bible. The new plan brings the surface Navy in line with submarine and air wing preparations for deployment, said Adm. John Harvey, head of Fleet Forces Command, who called this a “huge shift” because it unifies training through FLEET continued on page 3