Navy Lab Hosts Ceremony

Senior U.S. Navy and government officials will open the Navy's new Magnetic Silencing Complex at 10:00 a.m. on October 7th, 2002 at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) in Bethesda. NSWCCD commander Captain Steven Petri USN and executive director Mr. James Fein welcome U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes and U.S. Representative Connie Morella as speakers. The $7.6 million complex totals 39,000 square feet and houses unique facilities for measuring magnetic fields of scaled surface ship and submarine ferromagnetic models, as well as full-scale shipboard equipment. The Navy uses such facilities reducing the susceptibility of ships and submarines to magnetic sea mines and magnetic detection systems. Accomplishing this demands comprehending the underlying physics and testing with physical models. The payoff for the Navy is affordable, effective systems with minimized costs associated with full-scale testing. The complex incorporates an Electromagnetic Signature Facility, Deperming and Assembly Laboratory, Background Sensor Laboratory, and Magnetic Fields Laboratory. The latter is unique, a facility simulating ambient magnetic conditions a ship will encounter anywhere on Earth--the only U.S. laboratory allowing accurate measurement of magnetic fields underneath of full-size operating equipment and magnetic scale physical models. The Magnetic Silencing Complex provides 21st Century laboratories and offices for the magnetic silencing groups consolidated from the former Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oak, in Silver Spring, Md and the former Carderock Division Detachment in Annapolis, Md. Combining and rebuilding those assets generate a coupling of resources and talent that create a powerful nexus in sensor technology and design, development and testing of signature control system for Navy submarines and ships. NSWCCD experts continue their tradition of outstanding work performed for many years at the Annapolis and White Oak sites.