Nuts and bolts of a Rest and Maintenance Period

Gabrielle Brunette, 
Communications Coordinator Student, 
Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Breton

A great deal of planning and work goes into a Rest and Maintenance Period (RAMP) for a Royal Canadian Navy ship.

“A RAMP is like a mini work period that focuses on a ship’s operational deficiencies, overdue maintenance, and anything else that will affect the post-deployment work period,” said Lieutenant (Navy) Kevin Chung, the RAMP In-Charge of the maintenance project.

Before HMCS Vancouver conducted a RAMP in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 4-11, the Production Management team at Fleet Maintenance Facility (FMF) Cape Breton reviewed the project to better prepare a feasible work package, given the limited resources and duration of the work required.

“This is a critical step as anything that is missed during this review could result in work not being completed in a foreign port,” said Steve Ringma, Vancouver’s RAMP Production Team Manager.

He said his team relies on port services such as shore power and cranes to conduct work since they cannot bring that overseas. As such, Lt(N) Chung said the RAMP is challenging to do in a developing country or a port with limited resources.

A ship will only get one RAMP per deployment, Lt(N) Chung. Depending on the state of the ship and where the ship sits in the operational cycle, a RAMP may or may not occur.

The amount of personnel needed for a project, as well as the length of the RAMP, depends on the information in the work package.

“We sent 33 technicians from 15 different trades, conducting maintenance deemed critical by Fleet Engineering Readiness,” Ringma said.

Ringma said the FMF RAMP team did a great job executing the work period.

“It was great to see the team adjust and be flexible as challenges arose,” he said. “We had excellent support from the team back at FMF, especially considering the time difference, everyone was very reactive.”

During Vancouver’s RAMP period, crew members could take leave and explore the country or remain aboard the ship during the day and visit the city in the evening.

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