King William Native Creates a Bridge to the Future for Missile Techs

Senior Chief Adrian Rowe, a native of King William, Virginia, and the SWS master chief for the future Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) pre-commissioning unit (PCU), mentored junior Sailors and fostered valuable knowledge transfer during his participation in a training event held in Sunnyvale, California, May 18-22.
Rowe was one of a handful of Sailors hand selected to participate in Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) Reverse Strategic Weapons System (SWS) Week.
PAE SSP’s Reverse SWS Week serves as a powerful realization of the Chief of Naval Operations’ priority to strengthen the vital connection between the foundry and the fleet. By bringing the warfighter directly to the industrial base, PAE SSP ensures that the comprehensive modernization occurring across the entire sea-based leg of the nuclear triad is not just a theoretical concept, but a tangible, collaborative effort between the Navy’s acquisition community and the final end-users.
"This type of experience is an important aperture that opens up the strategic deterrence enterprise to us submariners,” said Rowe.
At this year’s Reverse SWS Week Sailors discussed the needs, challenges, and opportunities related to the Trident II D5LE system deployed on today’s Ohio-class SSBNs, and engaged with members of PCU District of Columbia.
As part of his roles and responsibilities with PCU District of Columbia, Rowe and his team are moving the first-in-class Columbia-class SSBN toward its operational state.Although the D5LE missile used on today’s Ohio-class will be the same one used in theinitialloadout on the USS. District of Columbia, the Columbia-class will have platform upgrades that improve the overallcapabilityof the weapon system.
“This consists of a lot of training, particularly forUSS District of Columbia given that she is a brand new first-in-class submarine,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Austin Baker, a native of Lake Forest Park, Washington, and the missile division lead petty officer for PCU Columbia.
A key aspect of building useful and sustainable training for PCU District of Columbia, including training that can be used as a baseline for follow-on Columbia-class SSBNs, is getting ground-truth from the partners involved in the design, development, and production of the strategic weapons system and weapons system integration components that will be deployed on the Columbia-class.
Rowe engaged hands-on with industry counterparts as he received an inside look at the production of the Trident II D5 Life Extension (D5LE) missile launch tubes. Peering down into the multi-story pit in the factory floor that supports the production and testing of the launch tubes, he and his fellow Sailors found themselves face-to-face with the raw parts of the same weapon system they will operate while on strategic patrol.
“I’m really interested in getting that direct interface...” said Rowe. “Being able to talk directly to the people who are developing the systems and proofing the technology – I think it puts the pieces in order and helps us to have a fuller understanding of what we are doing.”
PAE SSP’s Reverse SWS Week gave Baker and Rowe the opportunity to have in-depth conversations with the industry partners leading technology upgrades and process improvements that will be incorporated into USS District of Columbia. Their hands-on interactions on the production-floor gave the PCU District of Columbia representatives insight into opportunities for how certain functions on the future SSBN class can be done more efficiently, and they were eager to share their discussion with the rest of their PCU team.
“One of the reasons why I was attracted to this role, and to coming out to experience this week, is because it enables us to be in a spot where we can affect change in the developmental phase that is going to last throughout the entirety of the platform,” said Rowe. “I think it’s really valuable to go down and figure out what these sites do, bring that back to the boat, and then push on our sides to improve things.”
Rowe brought an experienced eye to the week’s industry engagements, but his interactions with the junior Sailors participating in Reverse SWS Week were equally valuable.
For Petty Officer 1st Class Blake Weiskittel, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, and a missile technician instructor at the Trident Training Facility in Bangor, Washington, the chance to interact with Rowe and Baker gave him a preview of what his future might look like.
“I’m very excited about the Columbia-class,” said Weiskittel. “I’ve asked them a lot of questions and have learned a lot about how those systems work through our conversations this week.”
“You get to see that you are really a part of something bigger,” said Rowe. “I hope these Sailors who have come down here see the really critical role that they fill, and that they walk away knowing that the Columbia-class is the future; it’s not an abstraction. It’s here, it’s going to be manned, and these Sailors are the Sailors who are going to be leading that effort for the future. I want them to recognize that they are going to be a part of that and how important they are to this.”