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The midlife refueling/complex overhaul (RCOH) of a nuclear aircraft carrier may be the most challenging engineering and industrial task undertaken anywhere. In addition to refueling the onboard reactor, a variety of maintenance and repair actions must also be undertaken, all while the entire ship is being modernized. The midlife refueling/complex overhaul (RCOH) of the USS Nimitz (CVN 68), completed in 2001, took five years of planning and three years of execution. This was the first RCOH for the Nimitz class and only the fourth ever accomplished on a nuclear aircraft carrier. Numerous budget, work-requirements changes, and a four-month labor-union strike during the overhaul caused the scheduled completion of the project to slip by several months and resulted in significant cost growth. This book analyzes the planning and execution of the CVN 68 RCOH to identify changes in processes and procedures that could lead to better cost and schedule performance for the nine remaining Nimitz-class RCOHs. Many improvements in planning and execution have already been implemented for the CVN 69 and 70 RCOHs; based on our study findings, we suggest that the following three sets of additional actions be taken: (1) improve the planning process; (2) improve data and estimating capabilities; and (3) improve the relationship between the Navy and its carrier construction contractor, Newport News Shipbuilding, the only U.S. shipyard with the capability to build and refuel nuclear aircraft carriers.
Table of Contents
Summary
Preface
All Prefatory Materials
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
Background
Chapter Three
Budgeting, Planning, and Contracting for the RCOH
Chapter Four
Cost Growth
Chapter Five
Assessing the Planning and Execution Processes
Chapter Six
Conclusions and Recommendations
Appendix A
Chronology and Work Schedule
Appendix B
The 1999 Strike Against Newport News Shipbuilding
Appendix C
Commercial Analogs to the RCOH Process
Research conducted by
The research described in this report was conducted for the U.S. Navy within the Acquisition and Technology Policy Center of RAND's National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center.
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