NSSA Performs Total Ship Readiness Assessments on Patrol Crafts

By Douglas Denzine, Norfolk Ship Support Activity Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) -- Norfolk Ship Support Activity (NSSA) began performing a Total Ship Readiness Assessment (TSRA) of six Patrol Crafts currently serving in the 6th Fleet Area of Responsibility, April 2.

TSRAs are performed by the Navy's Regional Maintenance Centers and serve as a common integrated process to plan, identify, access, document and repair a ship's system configurations and provide maintenance training to Ship's Force (S/F).

"This is an opportunity for us to go aboard the ships and perform what is almost like a mini Board of Inspection and Survey to assess the ships readiness," said Loren Hill, NSSA electronics technician. "We get a chance to look at the equipment and talk with the Sailors and this is when we start to find out those really odd things that the ship has been dealing with and it gives us the chance to troubleshoot and fix them with S/F."

The overall idea of the TSRA is to provide a framework and schedule to plan and execute a comprehensive assessment of ship's hull; mechanical; electrical; combat systems, command, control, communications, computers and intelligence systems; support equipment, and logistics condition.

This particular TSRA visit will focus on the Integrated Ship Network System (ISNS) and the Host Based Security System which serve as both the ships central intelligence and security network.

"ISNS covers a very broad umbrella, pretty much if any system is attached to the computer network; it falls under our scope, which means there is a lot of equipment for us to manage. The ability for ships to complete their mission relies heavily on that network," said Hill.

For larger class ships such as amphibious assault ships (LHDs and LHAs) the process to complete a TSRA could take up to two weeks. On the smaller vessels, even though a large number of systems are being assessed, NSSA's technicians can complete the assessment in roughly one week.

"There is a huge benefit for the Sailors and the ships since we provide such a wide range of real world capabilities. We take a lot of technical pride in our ability to continuously make our organization smarter and more equipped to deal with the problems we see, there is very little we can't overcome," said Hill.

TSRA also include the review and integration of data and information contained in maintenance and trending databases such as an Integrated Condition Assessment Systems, Integrated Performance Assessment Reports, and Corrosion Control Information Management Systems as part of the planning process.