Warfare Center Plays Key Role in Newest Destroyer Combat Certification

By Troy Clarke, Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona Public Affairs

ATLANTIC OCEAN (NNS) -- USS Gravely (DDG 107) and USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109) completed Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trials (CSSQT) in the Atlantic Ocean March 17, with technical support for the ships' live-fire missile exercises from NAVSEA warfare centers.

Experts from NAVSEA's warfare center divisions at Corona, Calif., Dahlgren, Va., and Port Hueneme, Calif., assessed key certification milestones at the Navy's Joint Warfare Assessment Laboratory (JWAL) in Corona, including the newly installed combat system upgrades to the Navy's Aegis missile defense system aboard Gravely and Jason Dunham.

"This CSSQT is a great example of how we bring together the many engineers and analysts from the warfare centers, as well as industry partners, in a single location at the JWAL, to provide the integrated picture of how our ships perform during qualification trials," said Capt. Jay Kadowaki, NSWC Corona Division commanding officer. "The JWAL is a key tool for the team of experts who provide the collaborative assessment the fleet needs."

CSSQT testing verifies combat and weapon systems performance for the new, converted or modernized ships, and NSWC Corona leads the CSSQT collaborative analysis teams, overseeing its data management. This capability allows the team to deliver overnight risk assessment reports for each day's air defense raids and live-firing test events. The assessment team also provides ADW weapon system performance directly from the JWAL for any fleet exercise around the world.

"Real-time, secure satellite communication gives the JWAL a powerful capability to connect the assessment team to the test ship, test conductors and decision-makers," said Performance Assessment Department Head Dan Bergstrom. "This is the nucleus for the Navy's collaborative analysis efforts."

Bergstrom said JWAL's secure global connectivity enables rapid feedback to the acquisition community and program managers, so they have the information needed for test and evaluation decisions, as well as the data to provide to the Aegis technical community for fault detection and fault isolation.

"CSSQTs are vital to ensuring our ships and their crews have the combat and weapons systems they need to execute their missions," said Program Executive Office for Integrated Weapons Systems (PEO IWS1) Combined Test and Evaluation Manager, Dean Kimelheim. "While the ships are conducting the tests at sea, our ashore team provides them and the acquisition community, rapid feedback on how they're performing as they go through the testing and qualification trials."

Kimelheim said CSSQT testing encompasses three to four months of ship equipment grooming, crew training and warfare-area testing. The last phases of CSSQT include Surface Warfare (SUW) testing and Air Defense Warfare (ADW) testing periods, culminating in live missile-firing tests.

"NSWC does the full spectrum of research, development, test evaluation and engineering, and whatever the U.S. fleet needs for offensive and defensive systems within surface warfare," said Naval Surface Warfare Center Commander Rear Adm. Jim Shannon. "NSWC is not just one place; it's comprised of 10 major commands geographically situated across the United States. This CSSQT is but one example of how we're integrated into a single NAVSEA team across the country."

NSWC Corona command is one of the Navy's newest federal labs and serves as the maritime service's independent assessment agent. It is responsible for gauging the warfighting capability of weapons and integrated combat systems.