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Sailors assigned to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) receive

pallets of ammunition on the flight deck at Naval Weapons

Station (NWS) Earle, N.J.

U.S. Navy photo

PACKAGING, HANDLING, STORAGE, AND TRANSPORTATION

IN NAVAL WARFARE by ROBERT J. VAN SCHAACK

Naval weapons development programs must address myriad performance requirements including accuracy, range, speed, destructive force, and environmental fortitude. The weapon

systems also must address the 12 Integrated Product Support (IPS) elements to ensure optimal system supportability when the system is felded. Of the 12 IPS elements, the most important may be packaging, handling, storage, and transportation (PHST).

Proper PHST planning and product development is one of the most import facets of weapon availability. Suitable weapon packaging must be developed to ensure that the commodity is protected throughout the logistics pipeline and to guarantee that the weapon is functional when unpackaged for use. It may be necessary to develop suitable equipment for properly handling the weapon. Stowage density must be optimized onboard ship to ensure maximum weapon inventory in the event of confict. And various transportation means must be considered for worldwide delivery to ensure weapons availability when and where needed. It also is very important to integrate all four elements of PHST; proper storage of an item requires knowledge about how it will be handled, stored, and transported.

VAN SCHAACK is senior packaging, handling, storage, and transportation engineer, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Indian Head Division, Detachment Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. He has worked at NSWC Indian Head Division for the last 29 years of a 37-year career as a Navy engineer.

The author can be contacted at robert.vanschaack@navy.mil.

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PackagingIt is crit ically important in all industries that packaging ensures proper protection through an item’s anticipated logistics cycle. Since packaging is an added cost, it is said that the best packaging is no packaging at all. This obviously is not always practical due to item fragility, environmental exposure, or handling issues. In commercial industries, the packaging often just needs to protect the item from the manufacturer or distributor to the end user where it is unpacked for use and the packaging disposed of. For naval ordnance, however, packaging is much more important.

Naval ordnance typically is expensive, complex, hazardous, and in limited quantity but often in high demand. Ordnance is constantly transported and handled between ships and from ship to shore to support naval operations. The ordnance remains in its container throughout its service life until used, with the exception of breakout for training exercises or for maintenance. As the “home” for the ordnance for 95 percent or more of its effective life, the container must be designed to meet many unique requirements to protect the weapon and ensure its functionality when needed. Specifc guidance for ordnance container design typically is obtained from the weapon system specifcation as well as from MIL-STD-648 (military standard, Design Criteria Standard for Specialized Shipping Containers). This guidance must be properly tailored, based on the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for the weapons system and ultimately documented in a container performance specifcation.

Primarily, the container must protect the weapon from anticipated adverse environments and from potential shock and vibration damage during transportation and handling. Most naval weapons containers are designed as hermetically sealed containers

An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter carries a missile case off the flight deck of the Wasp-class assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7).

U.S. Navy photo

that control humidity and protect the contents from various external environments such as rain, wind, hail, salt, fog, etc. The containers also utilize shock-mitigation systems and materials such as foam or cradles suspended from shock mounts. Expected shock and vibrat ion events include truck, ship, air, and trailer transport, and sometimes rail transport, as well as vertical replenishment or transfer by helicopter and connected replenishment or transfer from one ship to another. The shock and vibration efects from these various transportation and handling scenarios must be reduced

to acceptable levels to ensure that the weapon is undamaged and is usable when needed.

In addition to the above basic requirements, the Navy has many unique and stringent requirements due to the need to handle and stow weapons aboard ship. Shipboard magazine, elevator, passageway, and handling equipment constraints will limit the size and weight of weapon containers. Since magazine space is very limited aboard ships, the need to maximize weapons stowage density requires that the container size be minimized and container stacks be maximized within available overhead clearances.

This need to minimize container size must be balanced with other requirements such as near-miss shipboard shock and insensitive munitions (IM) protection to minimize an inadvertent activation of the weapon due to unexpected impacts or stimuli. The near-miss shipboard shock requirement means that the container must properly protect the weapon and remain safe when stowed aboard a ship and subject to a near-miss shock event from an underwater explosion. The transmission of such a severe shock must be mitigated to acceptable levels to ensure that the stored weapon remains functional. This often requires complex shock mitigation systems and ample sway spaces within the container. The insensitive munitions requirements such as bullet impact, fragment impact, and sympathetic or secondary reaction may require added container shielding. Clearly, both the near-miss shipboard shock and insensitive munitions protection requirements can add both size and weight to a weapons container that must be traded of with shipboard size constraints and stowage density requirements.

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Finally, the weapons designer must be aware of the PHST shock and vibration environments, as well as the shipboard constraints, to ensure that logistics pipeline can optimally transport and

handle the packaged weapon. PHST engineers need to work with weapons engineers early in the process to ensure that the weapon is designed with proper robustness for support

HandlingNaval weapons must be handled in both packaged and the unpackaged states. Depending upon size and weight, containerized weapons need to be designed to be handled with standard materials-handling equipment (MHE) and ordnance-handling equipment (OHE) such as fork trucks, pallet jacks, slings, beams, and carts. Containers of more than 300 pounds gross weight or at least 3 feet long must also interface with MK 45 handtrucks for end handling when aboard Navy ships.

Navy shipboard containers also must be designed to interface directly with shipboard magazine hoists or specifc, low, overhead beams used for lifting and stacking in magazines. Containers to be replenished or flled while ships are under way must be designed to interface with specific connected replenishment-handling equipment

and vertical replenishment-handling equipment. It is extremely important that the CONOPS of the weapon be defned as early as possible to ensure that PHST engineers are aware of the environments in which the weapon will be handled and the equipment available for handling. This will allow the engineers to properly design the weapon container to safely interface as much as possible with existing handling equipment.

Handling of the weapon outside of its container also will be required. This handling includes unpacking, handling, and transport over short distances, loading onto aircraft, shipboard launchers or other launch platforms, handling for weapons maintenance, and repacking. Again, it is critical for the PHST engineers to know the weapons CONOPS as early as possible to determine the need to develop new

within the container and with features that can be used to restrain the weapon within the container.

LEFT: A supply technician in the Material Management Department at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia, moves and sorts packages. BELOW: The Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM) along with the NEX San Diego team provides support to the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) at Naval Base San Diego.

U.S. Navy photos

handling equipment. This also will allow the PHST engineers to work with weapons designers to ensure that the weapons are designed with adequate interface features for required handling equipment. Handling equipment developed for ordnance lifting and movement must meet specifc safety and performance requirements as dictated by MIL-STD-1365 (military standard, General Design Criteria for Handling Equipment Associated with Weapons and Related Items), OP-4 (Ammunition and Explosives Safety Afloat) and OP-5 (Ammunition and Explosives Safety Ashore). PHST engineers always will attempt to utilize existing MHE and OHE to the maximum extent possible and only develop new OHE when specifically required due to weapon design and/ or CONOPS.

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Storage and StowageStorage of weapons ashore and stowage of weapons afoat are important parts of the weapons life cycle. The weapons container can be designed to control humidity. If temperature control is important, the storage location must be climate controlled.

Shore-based magazines at designated stations typically are not big drivers for weapons storage. Overhead clearances for container stacking usually are as high as 16 feet. Standard fork trucks and overhead cranes are available for container movement and stacking. Long weapon containers may cause

issues for moving through shore-based magazine doors and, if so, container end-handling solutions may need to be identifed.

Shipboard magazines for weapons stowage are a major driver for weapons container designs for use aboard ship. Stowage density aboard ship is critical, and the capability to maximize ordnance stowed aboard ship is of the utmost importance. Shipboard magazine space is limited and, depending upon the ship class, overhead magazine clearances generally range from 8 to 12 feet.

It therefore is important to know the anticipated stowage locations for specific weapons to ensure that containers can be stacked to maximize stowage density in these magazines, as it is never desirable to have a weapons container that can only be stacked 2.9 times its height. Always remember that container height may be impacted by other requirements such as near-miss shipboard shock and IM protection. It therefore is important to make the proper trade-offs during container design to ensure stowage density is maximized while still meeting other container performance requirements.

The amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8), right, the amphibious transport dock USS San Diego (LPD 22), center, and the amphibious transport dock USS Somerset (LPD 25) transit the Indian Ocean.

TransportationVarious transportation modes can be used. Truck, rail, ship, and air transport are all viable options for delivery of weapons, and the weapons container designer must be aware of all anticipated modes to design the container properly. Each of these transportation modes has specific vibration profiles against which the container must properly protect the weapon. In addition, transport of all hazardous materials must meet the minimum Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements and be properly certifed for the specifc mode of transport. Certification typically is based on specifc testing of the item in its container.

The most common form of ground transportation for weapons is by

truck. The optimal trucks are van trailers because they are covered against the elements and provide some environmental protection and security. Depending on the dimensions of the specific van trailer used, container lengths typically need to be limited to 90 to 96 inches in order to be loaded using side fork pockets. Containers more than 96 inches (eight feet) long typically are loaded onto fatbed truck trailers because they are difficult to end handle and load in van trailers. Transport by flatbed trailers also requires installing tarps over the loads. All ordnance truckloads need to be documented with truckload drawings of the required blocking, bracing, and tie-down of the loads for safe road transport.

U.S. Navy photo

Commercial rail transport usually is cost effective only for high-volume movement. Rail transport on the premises of Naval Weapons Stations typically is required for moving ordnance from magazines to loading piers and is a very controlled environment compared to commercial rail. Ordnance rail car loads must be documented with drawings of the required blocking, bracing and tie-down of the loads for safe rail transport. Per DOT 49 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) requirements for public safety, commercial rail car loads must be able to survive an 11.8 feet per second impact without failure of the blocking and bracing or ordnance container.

Shipboard transport typically is aboard Navy ships, and documentation is

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needed of the stowage and tie-down of the weapons in shipboard magazines. As mentioned previously, those weapons stowed and transported aboard Navy ships also must be able to survive a near-miss shipboard shock with no safety impacts to ship and personnel. Commercial ship transport usually consists of shipping the weapons containers within an International Standard Organization (ISO) container or flatrack. Again, drawings are required of the blocking and bracing of the weapons containers within the ISO conveyance to ensure safety during transport.

Conclusion As detailed above, it is evident that the PHST planning and execution for Naval weapons is a complex and important component of the overall weapon system’s success. Handling, storage and transportation requirements directly infuence weapon and weapon container design. As such, it is critical to identify these requirements as early as possible to ensure that weapons are designed with packaging and handling in mind and that weapons containers can be properly designed to protect the weapon throughout the weapon CONOPS.

It is also important for the PHST responsibilities for the weapon system to be performed by one organization whenever possible, as these aspects are all interrelated. Weapons packaging cannot be effectively developed without having intimate knowledge of the anticipated weapon handling, storage, transportation processes, and expected environments.

Proper PHST planning and execution is a major driver in weapons system safety. Packaged weapons must meet IM and near-miss shock requirements, must meet minimum DOT requirements for public shipment, and must have properly designed OHE

Finally, naval weapons also are commonly moved by air, and this option is typically limited to military aircraft. The proposed aircraft platforms need to be determined to ensure that the packaged weapon can withstand the vibration profles associated with each of them. The containers often need to interface with the Air Force 463L pallet(s) for tie-down and loading aboard specific aircraft. In addition, weapons containers must be capable of surviving, without damage to aircraft or personnel, a rapid decompression event—when the aircraft loses altitude quickly and undergoes a drastic change in cabin pressure.

Proper PHST planning and execution is a major driver in weapons

system safety.

and MHE interface features. OHE and MHE must be designed and procured for safe handling of the weapon in both the unpackaged and packaged state. Transportation loads must be properly documented and certified to ensure safety for each mode of transportation. And shipboard stowage loads must be properly documented and certifed to ensure survivability in rough seas and in cases of near-miss shock.

All Navy weapons are hazardous material that must be properly packaged, tested, and certified for the modes of transportation required. This includes, at a minimum, testing to DOT standards to ensure that the item is safe to transport via the specifc mode, as well as more extensive Department of Defense (DoD)-specific testing to ensure that the item is safe and functional after being subject to the various transportation and handling modes associated with its logistics profle.

In addition, properly designed containers are a major driver for weapons availability. As the “home” for the weapon for more than 95 percent of its life, the container will have a direct impact on the weapon’s availability. When properly designed, the container will protect the weapon from environmental extremes as well as mitigate shock and vibration to levels that will not damage the weapon. It must also be designed to be properly handled and transported by all methods identifed in the CONOPS. This will ensure that the weapon is where it is needed and is functional when unpackaged for use.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD) Detachment Picatinny Code G1, better known as the Naval PHST Center, is the only DoD organization dedicated to all four elements of ordnance PHST. As an activity that for more than 60 years has provided Naval PHST support to weapons programs, the Naval PHST Center has the subject-matter expertise to successfully plan and execute a PHST program for any weapon system and can be contacted at any time to lend support. n

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