SAN DIEGO — General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has completed a task order from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division to develop and demonstrate secure, cost-efficient procedures to render obsolete Los Angeles-class submarine propellers and related hardware for disposal and recovery of essential metal elements for reuse, the company said June 16.
This task order is part of a broad indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity Propulsor Demonstration Hardware contract previously awarded to GA-EMS.
“We provide secure manufacturing capabilities, state of the art processes, and strict conformance to industry quality standards combined with decades of experience developing and delivering critical systems and hardware components for a range of naval missions,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “This task order presented a rather unique opportunity to apply our expertise in manufacturing classified hardware, and essentially work in reverse to facilitate the dismantling and disposal of highly sensitive, obsolete parts. Securely dismantling components such as this and providing a path to recover potentially tons of alloy for reutilization can help the government realize significant material cost savings to meet future submarine requirements.”
GA-EMS has completed the demonstration of the procedures developed under the task order at GA-EMS’ manufacturing facility in Tupelo, Mississippi, using several government-furnished propellers and components.
Propulsors
GA-EMS has been awarded a task order by NSWCCD to demonstrate machining capability to produce prototype hardware for submarine propulsors under the same contract.
“We look forward to demonstrating our secure specialized manufacturing processes for materials management, machining to tight tolerances, and non-destructive evaluation of complex hardware components with precise geometry,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “Successful demonstration of our capabilities under this task order will further qualify GA-EMS to take on additional submarine propulsor development awards under the PDH program. We are proud to be working with NSWCCD as we continue to execute on a variety of task orders to develop new manufacturing techniques and technology innovations supporting submarine modernization efforts and to drive future submarine designs.”
Upon completion of this task order, GA-EMS will deliver the prototype hardware for use in testing components aboard the U.S. Navy’s Large-Scale Vehicle-2 (LSV-2), a submarine demonstrator platform operated by NSWCCD, to test advanced technologies for insertion into current and future submarines. Engineering work will be performed at GA-EMS’ San Diego, California, and Tupelo, Mississippi, facilities. Classified machining and non-destructive evaluation will occur in the Tupelo manufacturing facilities.
