Art Anderson Associates provided naval architecture and marine engineering services for Oak Management in the conversion of the ex-USNS Capable to an ocean-going research vessel for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), dubbed the Okeanos Explorer. The converted vessel was classed as an ice-strengthened Survey Vessel by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). It is the only US ship assigned to systematically explore our largely unknown ocean for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge.

Our initial tasking on this project was based on our extensive knowledge and expertise with the NOAA fleet. We have provided over twenty-five years of primary engineering support to the NOAA Pacific Coast Fleet, under multiple term contracts for naval architecture and marine engineering services. Over the course of the hundreds of tasks on those contracts, we've gained an unrivaled familiarity with NOAA's various research missions and the personnel, systems and equipment that support them. As a result, we prepared a detailed feasibility study of the ex-Capable, working with NOAA to determine how the converted vessel would be outfitted and successfully fulfill its mission requirements. We were then tasked with follow-on work to provide the naval architecture and marine engineering services necessary to execute the conversion.

Our scope of work for the conversion included the renovation of mission spaces, including new equipment foundations, lighting system modifications, electrical system modifications, new laboratory arrangements and fabrication of a new ROV control room console; design of new machinery foundations for the general purpose winch; fabrication and installation of a new J-Frame; electrical and piping modifications for the waste water holding tank; modifications to the ROV handling platform and track; and the addition of new scientific equipment to the main mast. Additional work involved naval architecture services to update post-conversion intact and damage stability data.