Sub Leaves Portsmouth Shipyard Early & Under Budget

(Portsmouth, NH) - The USS Alexandria has departed the Portsmouth Navy Yard, 2 weeks early and $9-million under budget.

Alexandria and its crew of 13 officers and 120 enlisted personnel arrived at the shipyard on Oct. 23, 2013. While at the shipyard, Alexandria underwent an EOH consisting of various maintenance and system upgrades.

The project team and ship’s crew adopted best practices from across the NAVSEA enterprise and empowered their teams to collaborate to meet the critical events vital to the overhaul.

Project Superintendent Scott Curtis applied lessons learned from previous overhauls, and attributes the project team’s success to an engaged and dedicated workforce partnered with the ship’s crew. Whether it was adhering to established and proven procedures or exploring new and more efficient ways to accomplish a task, Team Alexandria was always analyzing the task at hand and refining their performance.
“The workforce really took ownership of their work. They’re empowered to suggest and implement improvements to ensure first-time quality,” said Curtis. “Our undocking the ship on time in January with 94% work complete set the pace for this record-setting early delivery.”

Throughout the EOH, the project team executed both preventive and corrective maintenance while also modernizing some of the ship’s electronics, communications, and combat systems. With these upgrades, Alexandria is now the Navy’s most technologically-advanced Los Angeles-class attack submarine.
“From her arrival, Alexandria’s project team showed a commitment to safely delivering first-time quality work,” said Shipyard Commander Capt. William Greene. “Our submarines are national assets and we are unified as a team to ensure they can go in harm’s way, defeat enemies in war, and return their crews home safely.”

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is the Navy’s center of excellence for attack submarine maintenance, modernization, and repair. The on-time or early completion of submarine availabilities is critical in the maintenance of the fleet and essential to maintaining warfighter readiness. As a NAVSEA field activity, PNSY is committed to maximizing the material readiness of the fleet by safely delivering first-time quality, on time, and on budget.