Website lets sailors suggest solutions.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

U.S. Navy sailors and Marines increasingly are being encouraged to provide feedback on their equipment needs and quality-of-life issues.

To expedite the process, the Office of Naval Research has created a website specifically to log complaints and suggestions.

Operating under the name Tech Solutions, the $10 million-a-year project is intended to let the science and technology community get first-hand reports from the fleet, said Master Chief Petty Officer James Blesse, who heads the effort.

"Tech Solutions is a rather simple idea if you take a look at it," Blesse told a recent ONR conference. "We have a lot of really smart sailors out there with the average age of about 22. Rear Adm. [Jay] Cohen [director of ONR] said, 'Let's put a group together that can tap into that resource.'" Blesse recalled. That was several years ago.

By providing enlisted personnel with an opportunity to suggest exactly what they need, gaps can be closed, Blesse said. "The scientist in the lab builds things that he thinks the ship needs, compared to a sailor who knows what the ship needs," he said.

Blesse's role is to act as "the conduit in between the junior sailor that has to operate a piece of equipment and the scientist that has to design it," he explained.

"I am about as near-term as it gets in the science and technology world," he said, noting he operates in a 12-to-18-month window. The shortest effort was accomplished in three months, while an average endeavor would take up to a year, he explained.

Programs such as Deep Blue (see related story p. 22) look to solve problems that are discerned at the commander's level. In comparison, Tech Solutions is looking at the "deck plate level," Blesse said. That is, he basically looks for input from E4 to O4 pay grades, he explained.

As far as programs are concerned. "I run the whole gambit; I am not afraid of taking on anything," he said.

Tech Solutions currently is working on improving communications on the flight decks and on improving shock mitigation for rigid hull inflatable boats, Blesse said.

In the past, Tech Solutions has provided special operators with underwater communications equipment and sailors with a scrubber for the non-skid decks of aircraft carriers, which saves the Navy $35 million a year just in deck cleaning, he said.

Other efforts include the development of small-arms training devices for ships that lack realistic targets, aircraft carrier surveillance devices, an integrated database for...