SUBLANT Hosts Regional, Area Commander Summit
22 September 2022
NORFOLK, Va. --
Submarine Force Atlantic (SUBLANT) hosted a regional and area commander summit onboard Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads, Sept. 15.
The summit gave the opportunity for key partners to strengthen relationships and improve posturing and readiness to prevent and respond to a major fire, nuclear or radiological accident.
“The summit allowed for focused discussion to identify obstacles that might inhibit an overwhelming response to a major fire aboard a nuclear-powered warship,” said Capt. Stephen Mongold, SUBLANT’s director for maintenance and material readiness. “The intent is to develop and align on priority actions to further improve our collective readiness for a coordinated, effective response.”
During the summit, participants worked to align priorities, share lessons, and identify leverage points in their collective resources to rapidly advance solutions.
“Each stakeholder had the opportunity to brief current priorities and obstacles to achieving desired outcomes while highlighting where assistance is needed to more rapidly develop solutions,” said Bruce Wainer, SUBLANT’s director for radiological emergency planning. “Area commanders had the opportunity to share deficiencies, lessons learned, and improvement efforts as a result of their most recent audits and assessments.”
The summit had 17 commands and installations in attendance, allowing for shared feedback, knowledge and experience from all perspectives in the construction, operation and maintenance of nuclear-powered warships.
“Having participants from the entire range of commands and installations who assist in the entire lifecycle of nuclear-powered warships was essential to this summit,” said Carlynn Lucas, SUBLANT’s deputy director for radiological emergency planning. “With all participants in attendance, we were able to share our respective knowledge and experiences in regards to readiness, prevention and response.”
Capt. Diana Wolfson, commander, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, also shared her thoughts on the importance of the summit.
“Summits like this are not only important to continue to fortify our connections, but also to recognize gaps so that we can align our priorities as a region,” said Wolfson. “It is in this way that we will rapidly solve problems and come to solutions faster than we could have when performed alone.”
Participating commands and installations included SUBLANT, Naval Air Force Atlantic, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic, Submarine Force Pacific, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Submarine Group 10, Electric Boat, Submarine Squadron Four, Newport News supervisor of shipbuilding, Newport News Shipbuilding – Huntington Ingall Industries, Navy Installation Command, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, Navy Region Southeast, Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Reactors – Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Naval Reactors – Newport News.
Submarine Forces execute the Department of the Navy’s mission in and from the undersea domain. In addition to lending added capacity to naval forces, Submarine Forces, in particular, are expected to leverage those special advantages that come with undersea concealment to permit operational, deterrent and combat effects that the Navy and the nation could not otherwise achieve.
Submarine Forces and supporting organizations constitute the primary undersea arm of the Navy. Submarines and their crews remain the tip of the undersea spear.