The USS Frank Cable (AS-40) submarine tender finished its planned dry-dock repair availability in Portland, Ore., and steamed to its homeport in Guam on Dec. 21, the Navy said Dec. 28.
Vigor Industrial completed $56 million of improvements, maintenance, equipment repairs, and steel renewal over eight months in Portland.
The Frank Cable is one of the two active 40-year old Emory S. Land-class tenders. The ship underwent a main reduction gear foundation repair and shafting, collection holding tank replacements, and received over 600,000 pounds of renewed steel “to enhance survivability and watertight resistance,” which returned the ship to its designed mission capabilities, the Navy said.
The tender’s crew is split between Military Sealift Command (MSC) civilian mariners and Navy sailors. The civilians operate and keep up material conditions on the ship while Navy sailors protect it and provide repair and logistic support to other forward-deployed vessels. The Frank Cable helps to re-arm, re-supply, and repair submarines and surface vessels forward deployed in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.
Before the Frank Cable returns to Guam, MSC mariners are testing the ship’s updated underway capabilities, sailors are requalifying work centers to meet operating standards, and the ship will do a proof-of-concept for its submarine and logistics support capabilities.