I told you I would get this one covered. NOAP is short for Navy Oil Analysis Program. It does just what you thing, analyze oil. Every piece of equipment on board ship that uses oil has its oil tested on a regular basis. This is done to make sure nothing is going wrong with the equipment.

The oil is sent to a lab where it is examined on a molecule level for metallic particles. Certain important equipment will have soft metals installed in them so when parts are far from failing this softer metal will begin to wear. The lab can then see this softer metal in the oil sample and determine if the ship should repair or replace that equipment, before there is a failure.

The MRG, main reduction gear, is the single most important piece of equipment on the ship. It is more important than the engines and the generators. Once it is set in place it is impossible to remove without dry docking the ship and cutting it out. It is so important the inspection covers are locked shut and the keys for kept in a safe. The oil from the MRD is examined with much a fine tooth comb they can tell how humid it is in the engine room.

The line shaft bearings along the propeller shaft are also very important and those are also check with the same importance as the MRG. Our ship had one going bad and NOAP did not catch it, Sonar did. They picked up a strange sound and one of the techs remembered the sound from school. The oil was tested again by NOAP and they did find there would be failure of that bearing. So it was changed and disaster was prevented.

NOAP has since grown into JOAP, Joint Oil Analysis Program. This includes all of the armed forces and helps keep equipment running smoothly. For us chancing the oil in our car or truck is easy, a new filter, 5 quarts and we are off. For a ship in the Navy it could take a team of 50 a week for get all of the oil changed, filters changed, and wasted hauled off. So NOAP is important to save time, money, waste, and man hours.