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NSWC-PC assistance leads to SLMM success 
(Excerpt from the "Coastal COURIER" Naval Support Activity - Panama City, Fla.)

IPS employee Bob Bainbridge played a key role in the following project.

The Submarine Launched Mobile Mine (SLMM) was declared excess to the Navy needs in FY 98.  A Demilitarization Plan was written and the demilitarization process was about to begin when a decision by OPNAV, at the request of the Fleet, was made to not demilitarize the weapon but to reactivate a certain number of SLMMs to maintain the capabilities SLMM provided to the Navy.

To support that decision the In Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) for the weapon, NSWC-PC, created a SLMM Retention Plan.  This plan called for reestablishing MOMAU SLMM capabilities.  The plan also provided for rewriting of the Navy curriculum at Mine Warfare Training Center and re-certification of instructors.

A Tiger Team was formed with members from Commanding Officer Mobile Mine Assembly Group (COMOMAG), the ISEA, IPS, NOLSC, and NUWC Keyport/Hawthorne .  The Tiger Team's charter was to inventory  all the weapons and components remaining in the inventory, and determine the maintenance philosophy and logistics requirements of moving all weapons and components to the MOMAUs.  The ISEA also redesigned some weapon systems components and are in the process of redesigning testing criteria to give the MOMAUs the capability of testing individual components to reduce weapons reject rate during testing.

The ISEA created Technical Assist Teams (which included IPS employee Bob Bainbridge) to visit the MOMAU’s and Mine Warfare Training Center and assist in re-introducing the weapon.  The Team did just that, visiting the School House and assisting in rewriting the training curriculum, certifying the instructors, and evaluating the first class room session.  The first class  was conducted in January 2003 where eight students successfully completed the course.  The course is now taught twice a year with eight students per course.  This is re-establishing the expertise within the Navy to provide proper support for fielding SLMM.

The ISEA Technical Assist Teams also visited each MOMAU identified to maintain and service the weapon.  Each visit consisted of a week or more to help establish proficiency in testing and maintaining the weapon, batteries, and spare components.  After visiting the MOMAUs and working with them to provide weapons to the Fleet,  an In-water Reliability Evaluation (IRE) of the weapon was scheduled.

MOMAU UNIT 11 built and tested all sixteen weapons for the IRE.  The IRE was conducted in September of 2003 with all sixteen weapons firing successfully.  

You can contact IPS Engineering Technician Bob Bainbridge by phone at (850) 249-1536 or via e-mail at BainbridgeB@IPSincorporated.com

Munitions Conveyor Assembly (MAC) Training

IPS professionals, Ray Zalenski and Terence Houghton conducted MAC assembly, operation, disassembly, servicing, and maintenance training for the Italian Air Force.  At the request of Ver-Val Enterprises, Inc. of Fort Walton Beach, Florida,  Mr. Zalenski designed and conducted the training with Mr.  Houghton's assistance.

Mr. Zalenski used his extensive MAC experience gained while serving in the armament career field as a member of the U.S. Air Force, as well as information from the Technical Order (T.O.) for the system, to develop all materials for the training.  He used specialized software to incorporate technical photos and personal photos to develop a MAC Familiarization briefing in Microsoft^© PowerPoint^©.  

In addition to the PowerPoint^© briefing, Mr. Zalenski developed a detailed MAC Course Chart in Visio.  He also developed a copy of the T.O. that included a detailed lesson plan.  In this lesson plan, specific teaching steps were outlined to include personal suggestions to make the tasks easier or safer, allow for metric conversions, ensure proper sequencing, etc.

Training consisted of initially running through all of the applicable T.O. procedures "by the book," and then allowing the Italians to perform them on their own while Mr. Zalenski oversaw the operations and monitored for correct sequencing and any possible safety violations.  All involved attested to the success of the training.

If your organization has similar training needs, please contact Mr. Zalenski at the above listed number, or via e-mail (ZalenskiR@IPSincorporated.com).

Ray provides instruction on MAC assembly.

Class participants after a hard day of training.

A class participant receives his certificate.

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