USS O’Kane Starts Biggest Drydocking Period in PHNSY History

The guided-missile destroyer USS O’Kane (DDG 77) completed its move to Dry Dock 4 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on March 4 to begin its drydocking selected restricted availability (DSRA), the biggest in Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (PHNSY) history.

O’Kane returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, the ship’s homeport, on Dec. 5, 2014 following a nine-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf and Western Pacific Ocean where they conducted operations supporting regional security and counter-terrorism.

Cmdr. Gina McCaine, commanding officer of USS O’Kane, said:

This is the 2nd docking in O’Kane’s 15-year history. The repairs and modernizations she receives during this DSRA are critical to sustaining her capability to defend our nation.

After months of preparation, the availability began on Feb. 23 following the offload of all missiles and ammunition. Shipyard personnel and tugs precisely maneuvered USS O’Kane into the drydock basin, tied her to the pier, and drained the basin. This allowed the ship to rest on preplaced blocks allowing shipyard personnel and contractors access to below the waterline areas for maintenance, repairs, and upgrades to critical systems on USS O’Kane. This maintenance will help ensure O’Kane reaches the expected life span of 40 years.

Work scope

The availability is 37 weeks. Of those 37 weeks, the ship will spend more than 20 in drydock. Twenty-nine ship alterations are scheduled with one of the largest being the installation of an improved SONAR (Sound Navigation And Ranging) suite. It provides surface warships with a seamlessly integrated undersea/anti-submarine warfare detection, localization, classification and targeting capability. The system presents an integrated picture of the acoustic tactical situation by receiving, combining and processing active and passive sonar sensor data from a variety of hull-mounted arrays, towed arrays, and sonobuoys. This upgrade to the anti-submarine warfare suite will reduce weight, space, cooling, and power requirements.

Other major alterations include a bow strengthening modification, advanced galley modifications to enhance meal prep times and serving capacity, two berthing complex renovations, mast preservation, antenna overhaul, and shafts/rudders/propeller reconditioning. O’Kane will also be the first in the U.S. Pacific Fleet to receive the key management infrastructure (KMI) installation. KMI replaces the existing crypto system to provide a means for securely ordering, generating, producing, distributing, managing, and auditing cryptographic products.

The projected scope of work is in excess of 80,000 man-days. The predicted manpower requirements are more than 500 people per day. The overall cost is estimated to be $52 million.

April 29 marked USS O’Kane’s 25 percent completion of DSRA. O’Kane expects to undock on Aug. 26 and complete the availability on Nov. 6.

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Image: US Navy