Electronics Technicians (ET) — Navy enlisted ratings responsible for maintaining radar systems, electronic navigation equipment, electronic warfare systems, and communication electronics — served aboard Navy ships of all types maintaining the electronic systems providing the Navy’s combat, navigation, and communication capabilities. ET ratings maintained SPS air search radars, SPS surface search radars, navigational radars, Tacan navigation systems, and the electronic equipment in combat information centers and pilot houses of destroyers, cruisers, carriers, and submarines. Electronics Technicians worked throughout the ship’s interior accessing and maintaining electronic equipment installed in combat information centers, radar equipment rooms, below-decks electronics spaces, and equipment foundations throughout the ship’s hull. ET ratings working in the below-decks electronics equipment rooms and radar equipment spaces of Cold War-era naval vessels commissioned during the asbestos construction period accumulated background asbestos exposure from the asbestos-containing pipe insulation and construction materials present in the hull spaces where electronic equipment was installed and maintained.

Electronics Equipment Room Construction Asbestos

ET ratings in below-decks electronics equipment spaces accumulated background asbestos:

  • Below-decks radar and electronics room hull construction — the radar equipment rooms, electronics equipment spaces, and combat information centers aboard Cold War-era destroyers, cruisers, and carriers were constructed within the ship’s hull using construction materials consistent with the vessel’s construction period. Ships commissioned in the 1950s and 1960s incorporated asbestos-containing pipe insulation and construction materials in below-decks hull compartments, including the electronics equipment rooms where ET ratings performed equipment maintenance. Electronics Technicians spending long watch rotations in ship’s electronics spaces accumulated background asbestos exposure from the hull construction materials in the electronics room overhead and bulkheads throughout their shipboard assignments
  • CIC (Combat Information Center) construction — the combat information centers aboard Cold War-era destroyers and cruisers — below-decks compartments housing the ship’s tactical picture compilation and command decision spaces — were constructed within the ship’s hull using construction materials incorporating asbestos-containing insulation consistent with the vessel’s construction period. ET ratings maintaining electronic equipment in ship’s CIC accumulated background asbestos exposure from the CIC construction materials

Electronic Equipment Component Asbestos

ET ratings maintaining electronic equipment encountered asbestos-containing component materials:

  • Radar transmitter high-voltage component wiring insulation — the radar transmitter assemblies aboard Cold War-era naval vessels incorporated high-voltage wiring and component wiring with insulation materials consistent with the electronic equipment manufacturing specifications of the Cold War production period. ET ratings performing transmitter maintenance and component replacement worked with high-voltage wiring assemblies during each transmitter maintenance evolution
  • Electronic equipment cooling system pipe insulation — the chilled water cooling systems serving electronic equipment in ships with air conditioned electronics spaces incorporated pipe insulation on chilled water distribution piping consistent with the ship’s construction period specifications

VA Claims for Electronics Technician Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure from Navy ship service. Electronics Technicians who served aboard Cold War-era naval vessels and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.