USA: NAVFAC Celebrates 170 Years of Naval History

The Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) celebrates 170 years of naval history, Aug. 31.

The 13th Secretary of the Navy, Abel P. Upshur, officially established NAVFAC’s predecessor, the Bureau of Naval Yards and Docks in 1842, to execute the design, construction and maintenance of Navy yards and a few other shore stations around the eastern seaboard of the United States. Eventually the Bureau and its responsibilities would grow into the global enterprise known as NAVFAC, which was officially established in May 1966.

“Today’s NAVFAC team of Civil Engineer Corps officers, civil servants, Seabees, and contractors are a testimony to the tremendous contributions of those who have given their all to this organization in the past 170 years,” said Adm. Christopher Mossey, NAVFAC commander and chief of civil engineers. “I could not be more proud of what our NAVFAC team, around the world, is accomplishing for our supported commanders, the joint warfighter and their families,” he said.

With 16 commands located in the United States, Europe, Southwest Asia and the Far East, NAVFAC is the Navy systems command that delivers and maintains high-quality, sustainable facilities, acquires and manages capabilities for the Navy’s expeditionary combat forces, enables energy security and environmental stewardship, and provides humanitarian and contingency engineering response.

In fiscal year 2011, NAVFAC delivered more than $13 billion in products and services to supported Navy and Marine Corps commanders, as well as to other federal agencies. The command’s worldwide team of planning, construction, facilities services, and acquisition subject matter experts executed approximately 46,000 separate contract actions.

NAVFAC’s signature is visible on every Navy and Marine Corps installation around the globe. Nearly every pier, runway, building, gymnasium, barracks, road, utility plant, and other facilities on shore has been constructed or acquired by NAVFAC.

NAVFAC’s Public Works Departments answered more than 75,000 emergency and 600,000 service calls in a demanding 24/7 environment. This critical work is a vital enabler for what takes place daily on bases around the world.

In the expeditionary/fleet support area, NAVFAC supports the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC), Naval Special Warfare, and Naval Beach Groups with lifecycle logistics planning, support and equipment acquisition. As NECC’s lead systems command, NAVFAC manages 166 tables of allowance, thus ensuring expeditionary warfighters have common and interoperable equipment at the lowest cost, and the command executed more than $500 million in operations, maintenance and procurement funding that ensured NECC units have well maintained and state-of-the art equipment.

NAVFAC experts provide engineering reach-back support to warfighters as well as response and recovery support for disasters like the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.

Today, in response to Hurricane Isaac, NAVFAC sent a contingency engineering response team (CERT) made up of 17 military and civilian personnel to Naval Station Gulfport and Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base New Orleans. This will be the first time a CERT team will be using an unmanned aerial vehicle with camera, which will take photos from above to help disaster assessment teams better evaluate the facilities and roads on the bases.

Delivering sustainable and cost-effective solutions is increasingly important in the austere fiscal environment the nation is facing. Last year, in support of the secretary of the Navy’s ambitious energy goals to help achieve energy security and efficiency throughout the Navy, NAVFAC has helped supported commanders reduce energy consumption by 15 percent from a 2003 baseline. In addition, NAVFAC’s contributions to Navy’s shore energy program during the last 10 years has resulted in the Navy being awarded 24 percent of all presidential and 29 percent of all federal energy awards.

NAVFAC also provides supported commanders with environmental expertise, such as installation restoration, environmental compliance, and National Environmental Policy Act planning and coordination.

NAVFAC’s Small Business program is second to none. In 2011, NAVFAC exceeded all government-wide program goals and targets, with 44 percent of the total dollars awarded and more than 25,000 contracts going to small businesses. Consequently, the Navy’s Office of Small Business Programs presented the Secretary’s Cup award to NAVFAC for promoting acquisition opportunities for small businesses during a ceremony held at the Pentagon June 15.

NAVFAC has a proud history of delivering excellent products and services for supported commands since 1842. Building on 170 years of experience, NAVFAC continues to manage the planning, design, construction, contingency engineering, real estate, environmental and public works support for U.S. Navy shore facilities all over the world.

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Press Release, August 31, 2012