The US Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has announced the completion of the planned maintenance availability (PMAV) for the Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Tulsa (LCS 16).
The PMAV was executed by Hawaii Regional Maintenance Centre (HRMC).
Go deeper with GlobalData
It was conducted earlier in July at the Pearl Harbour basin on Oahu Island in Hawaii.
The maintenance period aimed to prepare LCS 16 for its deployment in the multinational exercise, Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022, and for scheduled return transit to its homeport in San Diego, on completion of 2021-2022 deployment in the US Seventh Fleet.
During this 11-day PMAV period, various preventive maintenance inspections and checks were performed on Tulsa’s systems and equipment.
HRMC surface ship operations project manager Terrence Calaustro said: “Preventive maintenance checks keep ship’s system and equipment performing optimally and reduce downtime over the life of equipment similar to taking your car in for a 100,000-mile check.
“These procedures range anywhere from 400 to1,200 checks within a PMAV period.”
Apart from the checks, the HRMC team also conducted maintenance availability on the ship’s modern jet propulsion system.
Work related to PMAV starts after extensive planning by the team, which according to Calaustro, involves identifying the periodicity of maintenance availability to see if the ship requires quarterly, monthly or annual checks.
This is followed by listing out the materials needed to perform maintenance and reviewing the requirement for any additional on-site technical or original equipment manufacturer support.
Calaustro added: “Quality assurance spot checks and daily progress meetings need to be conducted to ensure on-time delivery.”
Commissioned in 2019, Tulsa is a part of LCS Squadron One.
The LCSs of this class are capable of performing sea control, maritime security and deterrence missions.
