FEATURE ARTICLE

April 2005

Carrier Overhaul

USS Enterprise Gets $200 Million Renovation

By Harold Kennedy

The Navy’s oldest nuclear aircraft carrier—just back from the war in Iraq—is undergoing a $200 million overhaul that will help her last at least another decade.

In many ways, it was another homecoming for the Enterprise, which was launched from the same shipyard in 1960. The ship—whose homeport is the nearby Norfolk Naval Base—has returned to Newport News periodically during the past four decades for routine maintenance, said Bob Gunter, Northrop Grumman’s senior vice president for aircraft carriers.

In 1994, the carrier completed a major, four-year overhaul and refueling at Newport News. In 1999, she returned for additional maintenance. In 2002—after a tour in the Arabian Sea, where she became the first U.S. carrier to launch air strikes into Afghanistan—the ship sailed to Norfolk Naval Shipyard, located just across the James River in Portsmouth, Va., for more work. Although the Norfolk shipyard is owned by the Navy, this maintenance was performed by Northrop Grumman employees.

In 2003, the “Big E,” as she is known to her crew, was back in the Persian Gulf. In 2004, the Enterprise deployed to the North Atlantic Ocean as part of Summer Pulse ‘04, a full-scale exercise. Then it was time to return to Newport News.

Many of the 600 shipyard employees involved in the Enterprise project have worked on the ship many times over the years, Gunter said.

This maintenance program, scheduled for completion in May, is comprehensive, officials said. It involves almost everything from the ship’s stem to her stern—nearly the length of four football fields—and from the top of her mast to the bottom of her keel—the height of a 25-story building.

“I’ve got teams all over the place who are putting in new ducts, new flooring,” the Enterprise’s commanding officer, Capt. Larry Rice, told National Defense. “There’s lots of painting going on.”

Rice, a former F-14 fighter pilot, was the Enterprise’s executive office in 1999.

The ship is eerily quiet while the work is going on, compared to the roar of normal carrier operations. Flight and hangar decks are crowded with construction personnel and equipment, rather than aircraft and their crews.

The entire air wing, with as many as 2,200 sailors and 85 combat aircraft, has been moved off the vessel. Almost all of the 3,300 members of the regular ship’s crew—which includes 400 women—also are living ashore, “but they come aboard to work every day,” Rice said.

Managing the shipyard employees as they shift their work between three aircraft carriers is “a huge job,” said Gunter. “It’s controlled chaos. ... You have 2,000 employees whose jobs are in transition.” Moving so many employees smoothly from one major project to another requires careful planning, he said.

During its latest stay at the shipyard, the Enterprise is getting some badly needed upgrades, Rice said during a tour of the vessel. “You have to remember that the keel of this ship was laid in the late 1950s,” he explained.

First stop on the tour was the bridge, the ship’s navigation and command center, where the captain uses sweeping views of the vessel’s flight deck and beyond in all directions to monitor operations of the vessel and its aircraft. The navigational radar displays and engine and helm controls are all going electronic, said the ship’s assistant navigator, Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Tippett. The radar displays are getting individually programmable screens.

The new technology will make it easier for the ship’s crewmembers to operate the controls, Rice said.

The bridge sits in the ship’s island, the massive superstructure that dominates the flight deck. The island also contains the primary flight-control center, where the air boss controls flight operations, and the flag bridge, where the admiral commanding the Enterprise’s carrier strike group—half a dozen or so ships, depending on the mission—can keep an eye on what’s going on.

Rising 73 feet above the island is the vessel’s mast, which encloses radar and communications antennas. The mast is now shrouded in sheets of plastic while workers remove corrosion that has built up after years at sea, explained Cmdr. Mark Sanford, combat systems officer.

Down below, workers are resurfacing the 4.5-acre flight deck, testing tie downs, which are used to keep parked aircraft firmly in place as the ship plows through heavy seas, and replacing those tie downs that fail to pass muster.

To improve its defensive capabilities, the Enterprise is replacing its MK Phalanx close-in weapons system, or CIWS (pronounced sea-whiz) for short, with the RIM-116 rolling airframe missile, Rice said.

CIWS is a 25-year-old, fast-reaction, rapid-fire 20-mm gatling gun system that is designed to provide terminal protection against anti-ship missiles that have penetrated the carrier’s other defenses. The RAM is a lightweight, quick-reaction, fire-and-forget missile that is designed to destroy anti-ship missiles and other asymmetric air and surface threats.

The CIWS is produced by Raytheon Company’s missile system division in Tucson, Ariz. The RAM is a joint effort between Raytheon and RAMSYS, a German consortium. It is currently installed or planned for installation on 78 U.S. Navy and 30 German navy ships. South Korea has bought four RAM systems, and Greece has accepted delivery of one.

The Enterprise air wing includes: F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter-bombers, S-3 Viking surveillance and refueling aircraft, EA-6B Prowler tactical electronic jamming platforms, E-C Hawkeye command and control aircraft, SH-60 Seahawk anti-submarine and search-and-rescue helicopters.

The devices that enable aircraft to take off from and land on carrier decks—catapults, jet-blast deflectors and arresting gear—are getting their own overhaul, explained project superintendent Jerome Thomas.

The Enterprise has four steam-powered catapults, each of which can launch a 48,000-pound F/A-18 from a dead stop to 165 mph in the space of 265 feet and in just over two seconds.

Behind each catapult is a massive, water-cooled jet-blast deflector, which pops out of the deck to protect sailors and equipment from the force and heat roaring from the engine as the aircraft prepares to take off.

Landing on a carrier flight deck at 140 mph requires an aircraft’s tail hook to catch one of four 110-feet-long arresting wires, which brings the plane to an abrupt halt within 350 feet. The engines that control each wire—located just below the flight deck—are being rebuilt, Rice said.

The Enterprise’s berthing quarters also are getting a redo. The latest bunks and wall lockers are being installed. New tile decks are replacing worn-out surfaces. Badly worn hatches—doors to landlubbers—are getting a fresh coat of paint.

In addition, the ship’s highly classified propulsion system is getting a tune-up. The Navy and Northrop Grumman will say only that the work includes routine steam-plant maintenance, turbine-generator overhauls, pump repairs and condenser inspections.

The Enterprise is powered by eight nuclear reactors, which produce a total of 200,000 horsepower. The reactors turn four 32-ton propellers fast enough to enable the Enterprise to cruise at speeds in excess of 30 knots. On one cruise at that speed, Rice said, “it took us about eight days to sail from Norfolk to Suez.”

The Enterprise will be replaced by CVN-78 in 2014.

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