Support Equipment (SE) at
Lakehurst
What is SE?
Think of all that it takes to operate, service and maintain your car. To
keep it in good repair, under all conditions, you would need a garage
full of equipment, everything from specialized wrenches to sophisticated
engine analyzers. To service the car, you need equipment to pump fuel
(provided for you by the corner gas station), to change the oil and
check the anti-freeze. If the car breaks down, you may need a tow truck.
Now imagine
that instead of driving a $20 thousand sedan in a city full of repair
shops, you're driving a $40 million F/A-18 on a 1,000 foot long, 90,000
ton ship, often in a hostile environment. The quantity and complexity of
equipment needed to support this vehicle increases almost as rapidly as
the cost of the vehicle itself.
Categories
of SE
There are two major categories of SE; Common SE (CSE), equipment that
can be used with any aircraft, such as tow tractors or weapons loaders;
and Peculiar SE (PSE), equipment customized for an aircraft, such as
equipment to repair aircraft unique components. Of course, it's to the
Navy's advantage to maximize the use of CSE (less costly, fewer pieces
of equipment on the already crowded aircraft carrier), and often to the
aircraft manufacturer's advantage to maximize the PSE (which they
provide). Lakehurst's responsibility is to work with the aircraft prime
contractor and, if necessary challenge the prime, from initial design
through acquisition, on every piece of PSE recommended. Lakehurst makes
sure that the Navy gets exactly what it needs and only
what it needs.
What's
So Special About Navy SE?
Unlike Air Force operations, operating at sea, aboard a
small (relative to an air base), moving, crowded ship imposes severe
requirements on the design of Navy SE. Space limitations force the SE to
be used close to other powerful electronic equipment such as radar
systems requiring that the SE satisfy exacting electromagnetic
interference and compatibility standards.
There is
nothing more corrosive than a hot, wet, salty environment, exactly what
the SE is subjected to in the middle of the Indian ocean. The SE must
satisfy rigorous shock and vibration standards. Electrical requirements
are unusually stringent as are fire prevention standards. And by the
way, the equipment must be light and compact, must be able to operate on
a rolling, pitching, heaving flight deck moving at thirty knots, must be
extremely reliable and, if it breaks, must be repairable by a 19 year
old seaman who has just completed a 12 hour shift.
The
Lakehurst SE Responsibility
The Navy currently has over 100,000 items of SE with operational and
maintenance activities worldwide. Lakehurst is the Navy's lead field
activity for SE for all Navy ship and shore based fixed and rotary wing
aircraft and is responsible for the acquisition, distribution and life
cycle support of all SE required for aircraft operations.
Lakehurst is
also the lead activity for the Navy's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) SE
program, responsible for procuring SE for foreign governments operating
Navy aircraft.
Support
Equipment programs represent over 60 percent of the labor and over 90
percent of the hardware procurements at Lakehurst. Catapults and
arresting gear are more costly, but there are many more SE procurements.
SE
Synergy at Lakehurst
Engineers evaluate the aircraft prime contractor's stated requirements
for SE. Lakehurst Integrated Program Teams then apply concurrent
engineering techniques to develop selected new PSE and CSE. Engineers,
logisticians, test technicians and manufacturing artisans work together.
Focusing on safety, effectiveness, producibility and cost they build and
test a prototype. Teaming with Lakehurst acquisition specialists, they
then develop procurement packages, carefully monitor the procurement and
manage introduction of the equipment into the fleet. Thus the Navy is
assured of getting effective SE that satisfies all requirements, and
getting it when they need it, at a fair price.
|
