NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md.–Members of the Naval Aviation Training Systems and Ranges program office (PMA-205), Army and civilian divers at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) recently completed a month-long inspection and sustainment operation on critical pieces of undersea infrastructure in Kauai, Hawaii.
The PMRF is world’s largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training range, providing thousands of nautical miles for anti-submarine warfare aircrew training and evaluation of performance of anti-submarine warfare platforms and equipment. It is the only range in the world where subsurface, surface, air and space vehicles can operate and be tracked simultaneously.
“Sustainment of the PMRF is critical because this range allows warfighters extraordinary flexibility in planning and conducting realistic multi-participant, multi-threat operations to train crews, evaluate tactics, and test weapon systems,” said Capt. Kevin McGee PMA-205 program manager, whose team supported the effort.
At PMRF, cable conduits run offshore from the beach to various points on the range. The cables connect more than 1,000 square miles of sea floor, and are instrumented with hydrophones and underwater communication devices to an onshore range operations center, allowing range participants to be tracked in real time from the surface to the sea floor.
Weather and swell induced damage to cables at PMRF can be severe, with swell heights reaching 25 feet or more during storm seasons. Damage to the cables can include abrasion, corrosion and sand scouring, requiring continual preventative maintenance and repair to keep the range operational.
“In recent years, repairs to underwater cables in diver depths at ranges in southern California cost the Navy more than $10 million. The Navy plans to prevent this from happening at PMRF through aggressive and continual preventive maintenance measures,” said Mike Dick, a civilian engineer diver from PMRF Underwater Tracking Systems.
To complete this work, divers from PMA-205, PMRF Underwater Tracking Systems and military divers from the Army’s 7th Engineer Detachment inspected thousands of feet of cable, completed cable stabilization, and installed anodes in water depths reaching more than 100 feet. Lt. Cmdr. Paulstephen Chierico, who supports PMA-205, completed seven dives at PMRF this year.
“There is a common background between military trained divers, you can embed with a team, and with people who they have never met before and immediately trust them with your life. It was a great experience working with civilian and Army divers for this truly joint mission,” said Lt. Cmdr. Paulstephen Chierico, PMA-205 ocean facilities team lead.
Aggressive sustainment is vital to keeping the existing ranges at the PMRF operational until PMA-205’s Undersea Warfare Training Range Program recapitalization is complete. The team recently completed installation of a new underwater junction box site that informed the critical design review for the planned ranges and helped in establishing the best routes for instrumented cables.
About PMA-205
PMA-205 provides full life-cycle acquisition of naval aviation training platforms, general training systems, training range instrumentation systems, and distributed mission training centers to provide U.S. Navy and Marine Corps pilots, naval flight officers, aircrew, and maintainers with the training equipment required to provide lethal capability and operational readiness.