While the war in Iraq is considered ‘officially over,’ there’s still much for the U.S. military to do – on land and at sea. In order for the U.S. Navy to maintain one of its most critical components in the War on Terrorism – it’s remote communications system – this branch of the military looked to Furmanite to provide not only worldwide ongoing machining services, but also the highest-quality precision equipment to get the job done. 

For the last two years, Furmanite has been engaged via a government contractor to apply its Critical Tolerance Application to pedestals on Navy battleships. These pedestals serve as the foundation for each ship’s communication satellite capturing antenna. Furmanite does onsite precision milling of these pedestals each time the Navy needs to upgrade the signal antenna. The two machines Furmanite uses to accomplish this are the Silk 48-96 and the Silk 6-30. The Silk machines are mounted and leveled to the ship’s gyrocompass by NAVSEA Laser Alignment Personnel. Once mounted, Furmanite technicians use the Silk equipment to level the antenna and mounting surfaces. 

It’s vital for Furmanite’s component of the upgrade to be machined to an extremely tight tolerance. This is because the antenna must be level to the ship’s gyroscope within a few thousands of an inch in order to be effective. Any deviation to the antenna’s alignment could affect the ship’s communication capabilities.  

According to Jeff Wolf, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, the fact that Furmanite is consistently selected to perform this delicate and vital work can be directly attributed to the Company’s quality and efficiency. “Furmanite has proven to our contracting partner, as well as the Navy, that we have the most qualified technicians that are capable of doing the work faster and more efficiently than the competition.”