BRAC brings Navy back to Picatinny with new facilities

By Mr Eric Kowal (RDECOM)November 4, 2011

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(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. - U.S. Navy officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 18 to mark the official opening of six new naval facilities built here as a result of the Defense Department's 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) directive.

BRAC 2005 called for creation of an integrated weapons and armaments specialty site for guns and ammunition at Picatinny Arsenal.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division's Picatinny detachment includes three primary functions; ammunition engineering, gun systems in-service engineering, and packaging, handling, storage, and transportation (PHS&T) test and engineering.

Five of the six facilities built for the Navy are new, including the PHS&T and the Guns and Weapons Turret facilities. The Guns and Weapons Technical Data facility is located in a completely renovated building.

The facilities currently are occupied by 240 Navy employees. These positions were transferred here from Earle Naval Weapons Station in Colts Neck, N.J., the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division's Louisville Detachment, in Louisville, Ky., the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane, Ind., and the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif.

Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command, hosted the ceremony and told the nearly 200 people in attendance that he too knows what it likes to be subject to BRAC

He noted that that he was often away from his family for months, sometimes driving as many as 400 to 500 miles a weekend to see them only for a few hours.

"I really, deeply appreciate your being willing to serve," McCoy told the audience.

The Army Corps of Engineers New York District oversaw the construction projects. The ribbon-cutting marked the return of the Navy after a 50-year absence from the Arsenal.

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