PANAMA CITY, Fla — Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD)’s Technical Director forecasted a healthy fiscal business year for 2015 during the annual State of the Division and Annual Awards ceremony held Dec. 16, 2015 in Panama City, Florida.
NSWC PCD Technical Director Ed Stewart (SES) told employees that while process improvement will be a key internal focus for the future, overall NSWC PCD’s support to the Littoral Combat Ship program will represent a major component of the Division’s future over the next 50 years.
“The next phase of the Mine Countermeasures Mission Package will see a common set of unmanned, modular systems, which will provide the carrier battlegroup, the expeditionary strike group, and land and sea-bases with an organic the capability of detect-to-engage Mine Countermeasures operations,” said Stewart. “At NSWC PCD, we are more impacted by what is happening with our specific programs than with overall budget shortfalls. Our Technical Program Managers have projected a strong year for FY16 in all our product lines, but we will likely face some challenges as we proceed through the fiscal year, particularly in Littoral Combat Ship testing. Despite these challenges, we are continuing to hire to meet a healthy workload demand, and we will have no shortage of projects to work on as we head into a new and exciting year.”
To prepare for future challenges, which includes a retiring workforce, the Division hired 210 new employees to compensate for 83 people who either retired or moved on to other assignments. By the close of FY15, the total number of NSWC PCD employees rose to 1,400 employees – the highest since the 1980s.
Following the State of the Division, Stewart and NSWC PCD Commanding Officer Capt. Phil Dawson, USN, presented 44 employees with individual and team excellence awards and inducted 11 employees into the Division’s Inventor’s Society. The Inventor Society inductees are those employees who have earned their first U.S. patent and further recognize innovation in support of the Department of the Navy.
“For 70 years, this Navy base has been producing amazing work, providing increased capabilities, and cutting edge technology to our Sailors and Marines, who are on the front lines, defending all of our freedoms every day,” said Stewart. “A great example is the Shadowgraph, the Navy’s first side-scan sonar and literally the precursor to all of the sonar work we do today.”
Shadowgraph’s patentee and former U.S. Mine Countermeasures Station scientist Dr. Julius Hagemann was recognized during the ceremony for his scientific contributions to the U.S. Navy’s mine countermeasures program. U.S. Mine Countermeasures Station was NSWC PCD’s name between 1942 and 1952. Hagemann’s daughter, Vera Trafton, was recognized on her father’s behalf for his scientific achievements for the U.S. Navy. Dr. Hagemann died May 20, 1964 while at work.
The annual State of the Division report is based upon Balance Scorecard data used by the command to manage the overall health of the command, which is a Navy Working Capital Funded, not-for-profit organization. Under the Balanced Scorecard, Stewart said high quality organizations, hitting on all cylinders, should be performing well in all five of these areas: stakeholder support (in our case, warfighter readiness), customer support, financial, people and processes.
Stewart cited NSWC PC’s FY15 technical accomplishments for the Division’s four main mission areas – mine warfare, expeditionary maneuver systems, naval special warfare, and diving and life support. These accomplishments included support to the Office of Naval Research (ONR)’s PAX River Science and Technology unmanned underwater vehicle demonstration, completion of the Littoral Combat Ship Mine Countermeasure Mission Package technical evaluation, Office of the Secretary of Defense Fast-Lane fielding of the Mk18 Mod 1 and 2 Minehunting Unmanned Underwater Vehicle demonstrating a Very Shallow Water capability in 5th Fleet. NSWC PCD’s personnel successfully transferred Mk18 operations from contractor to Fleet and the system has received an Acquisition Category IV Designation and the MH-60S Integration team delivered the first seven Carriage, Stream, Tow and Recovery system kits to the Fleet in FY15; they are currently issued to HSC-2 on the East coast and HSC-3 on the West coast and are being trained and exercised.
“This is also the time of year when we recognize our best and brightest for truly stellar contributions and successes in teaming, technical support, collaboration, scientific/engineering achievement, leadership, Fleet support, innovation, organizational support, program success, and technical excellence,” said Stewart. “The Captain and I are very proud of our winners as well as those who were nominated — the competition was particularly strong this year, with so many success stories to celebrate.”
In 2015, NSWC PCD celebrated 70 years as a research, development, test and evaluation U.S. Navy command charged with delivering innovative technical capabilities, sustaining and modernizing today’s mine warfare, naval special warfare, expeditionary and amphibious systems, diving and life support and all other operations that occur in littoral waters.
A history video commemorating NSWC PCD’s 70th anniversary was released at the Dec. 16, 2015 ceremony and is available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/mOEKc05G88g