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Nassco Training Program Tests Workers’ Mettle In Ship Work

General Dynamics Nassco has gotten back into the habit of hiring and training workers, as its new construction backlog has grown.

The shipyard in Barrio Logan is midway through a series of U.S. Navy pre-positioning ships and has lined up a lot of commercial tanker work. In addition, Nassco has been working out preliminary designs for a new Navy fleet replenishment oiler. The Navy is still a long way from choosing a builder, but last year it asked three competing shipyards to do preliminary work on what could be a very attractive project: up to 17 ships in a program worth billions of dollars.

With the new emphasis on hiring, Nassco has reactivated its training program.

To hear Kevin Graney tell it, the people who built ships for Nassco during previous decades might notice some changes in the way things are done today.

A new training program, developed in the last year and implemented in the spring, puts less emphasis on reading blueprints, geometry and arithmetic, said Graney, Nassco’s vice president and general manager. Production employees rely less on blueprints these days. Computer-assisted design tools and computer generated production information take a lot of the guesswork out of the shipbuilding process, the G.M. said.

Graney estimated there are 150 to 200 people in Nassco’s classes, on the first and second shifts. All earn a trainee salary that is better than minimum wage. A typical class has 20 welders and 20 shipfitters — shipfitters are the people who position the big steel blocks for welding. The General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) unit has taken some of its best welders off the production line to teach, Graney said.

Students weld every day and the school tries to simulate the real-world environment.

“We’re not pulling any punches,” said Graney. Students are asked to weld in hot and dark environments, and in uncomfortable positions — just like they would if they were assembling an actual ship.

There is an element of teamwork in the classes, as students try to assemble 12 by 12 by 5 foot boxes.

Another new aspect of today’s classes, Graney said, is the deadline pressure of working to a schedule.

Nassco is also looking for riggers, pipefitters, machinists and crane operators. And that oiler contract would be nice, too.

• • •

Another Sort of Training: The experience of being in the military has all sorts of parallels in the commercial world. Ask Mike Walls, a Norfolk, Va., resident who spends part of his time in San Diego with locally based EdgeWave. The business provides cyber security to small and midsized businesses, including those in the education, health care and commercial sectors.

Walls was a pilot who worked in cyber defense late in his 28-year U.S. Navy career. During his last assignment, he found himself actually battling intruders in cyberspace.

It was an intense experience, and a new one. Walls said the Navy was the first service to conduct a named operation in cyberspace — something along the lines of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the kinetic world. He declined to give other details, including the identity of the other players. “It’s not just going after organized criminals or a couple hackers,” he said. “It was a significant threat.”

Walls, who retired with the rank of captain, concluded his Navy career with a job in 10th Fleet, an organization that has a unique spot in Navy lore. The Navy set up 10th Fleet in World War II to deal with anti-submarine warfare, then deactivated it at war’s end. It was reactivated in 2010 to deal with cyber warfare.

When he was ready to go into civilian life, Walls said his wife made a request; she preferred that he not settle into a career as an airline pilot. That was fine, Walls recalled, because he had grown to like the cyber security aspect of his last command. He had even become passionate about it.

During his transition out of the military, Walls checked in with Dave Maquera, who had been his stateroom mate and squadron mate on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy during the days when both flew A-6E Intruder aircraft. Maquera had gone on to become CEO of a San Diego company called EdgeWave.

They spoke of fighting and maneuvering on the network, and Walls recalled Maquera finally saying, “Hey, why don’t you come aboard?”

Walls did that in June. His title is now managing director of cyber security operations and analysis.

These days, Walls employs many lessons from his military training, including staying ahead of the enemy in the decision-making process. The concept of the OODA loop — the process of observe, orient, decide and act — is key. OODA was originally an Air Force concept, but it has since made its way into the civilian world, notably into business school curriculum. It’s a good concept to use in cyberspace, Walls said; “Your decision-making can’t be reckless, but it has to be deliberate and timely.”

Though it serves commercial customers, EdgeWave touts “military grade” products in its current advertising. The business, formerly known as St. Bernard Software, is taking on more Navy retirees, recently hiring Tom Chapman, a former intelligence officer. It’s probably not EdgeWave’s last military hire.

• • •

An Anniversary: Northrop Grumman Corp. is marking the 30th anniversary of its Carmel Mountain Ranch facility, which began as a unit of TRW. The location, part of Northrop’s Information Systems sector, specializes in software defined radio, and produces avionics for the F-22 and F-35 aircraft, as well as JCREW electronics, which jam improvised explosive devices.

Send San Diego defense industry news to bradg@sdbj.com.

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