Phase I Submission Name of Program: Global Hawk Operations

Transcription

1 2013 Program Excellence Award Phase I Submission Name of Program: Global Hawk Operations Name of Program Leader: Avis Anderson Phone Number: avis.anderson@ngc.com Postage Address: Goldentop Road San Diego, CA Name of Customer Representative: Daryl Kitchen, Lead ASC/WIG (Sustainment Global Hawk Division) Phone Number: daryl.kitchen@wpafb.af.mil Bio for program leader: Averell Avis Anderson Manager, HALE Systems Sustainment Aerospace Systems Division Northrop Grumman Corporation Avis Anderson currently holds the position of Manager of Fleet Management for the Global Hawk Program of Northrop Grumman Corporation. guerrge Mar 31, 7:28 PM Added: Space A 28-year career in aerospace started with Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical spending 11 years on the Apache Helicopter Production Program. Anderson worked his way up to Factory Manager before AVIATION PROGRAM XCELLENCE INITIATIVE being given anweek opportunity to E lead the initial manufacturing of the Global Hawk platform in Credited with driving the first rivet into this futuristic airframe, Anderson and his team were successful in taking this concept from the drawing board into physical reality. Continuing to move forward in his career, Anderson soon was placed in charge of the Manufacturing Engineering, Production Control and Quality Engineering support groups above the shop floor. Following the attacks of Sept 11, 2001 Anderson volunteered to lead a small team of contractors forward during the initial deployment of the Global Hawk weapon system. Subsequently Anderson has deployed on multiple occasions to various locations leading contractor teams in support of weapon system operations.

2 Phase I Program Narrative - 1 From January 2010 through December 2012, Northrop Grumman (NGC) has teamed with the US Air Force to deliver unprecedented high altitude, long endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) support to American military forces, the nation s political leadership and allies world-wide. During this time, NGC s partnership with the US Air Force enabled them to transition the Global Hawk from a preliminary aircraft design with limited payload deployed to one theater to a true, multi-mission, multi-sensor system, supporting six Combatant Commanders. During this time, the Global Hawk HALE team supported 2888 sorties and 46,600.2 total flight hours. To support these crucial flight operations at this unprecedented pace, Northrop Grumman deployed logistics support personnel to five locations: three overseas in the Middle East, Europe and the Pacific regions in addition to California and North Dakota. In the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility, the Global Hawk flew six sorties hours in support of Haiti Earthquake Relief. These time-sensitive missions were critical in the recovery efforts following the overwhelming devastation. Global Hawk was overhead the disaster area within 18 hours of being tasked to support -- weeks before other ISR aircraft arrived. During the same timeframe, NGC assisted the USAF to provide HALE UAS to support counter-drug missions in the western hemisphere. In the Middle East, where US and allied forces were engaged daily in combat operations, the NGC-USAF team delivered 9,625 total hours with more than 460 flights and more than 90% of which were effective. Global Hawk provided near continuous day, night and all weather imagery support in addition to game changing communications relay support. The NGC team provided instrumental to transition a basic ISR aircraft into this game changing C2 relay that field commanders credit with saving lives. The communications relay, known as Battlefield Airborne Communication Node (BACN), allows air and ground units to communication over hundreds of miles, in mountainous terrain. The HALE BACN support resulted in supportive firepower delivered 25% faster for US and allied troops engaged in combat. The NGC team delivered the revolutionary aircraft ahead of schedule to meet urgent operational requirements. In addition to this support, the NGC team sustained the first-ever HALE unmanned maritime surveillance flight operations, accounting for 51% of all naval intelligence data -- all provided with a single aircraft. In the Pacific theater, the NGC-USAF team launched 191 sorties and flew hours. These HALE ISR missions provided theater commanders with unparalleled reach covering 5 times the number of hot spots than legacy HALE aircraft could reach on a daily basis. Foremost among these missions include providing real time imagery to US and Japanese officials within 2 days of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck in early In a demonstration of value chain optimization in action, the NGC/Air Force team increased 3 fold the pace of flight operations and provided herculean support with 45 days of continuous flight operations with day, night and all weather imagery, enabling response officials to pinpoint survivors and assess the extent of damage to Japan s nuclear reactor (27 missions / flight hours). The NGC team accomplished this pace with no increased manpower support or other resources. These flight operations included the first-ever on-station HALE unmanned aircraft hand-off using a single ground control station. During these disaster relief flights, the NGC team also supported the firstever UAS flight into a nuclear environment, while ensuring the aircraft was decontaminated quickly in order to support the intense operational pace. Finally, the NGC team supported the 2

3 3

4 Phase I Program Narrative 2 Value Chain Optimization guerrge Mar 31, 7:43 PM Added: Space From its base in the Mediterranean Sea, the NGC team supported 231 sorties and hours. These pioneering missions guaranteed unprecedented support to three US regional commanders simultaneously. When the US and NATO launched air combat operations into Libya, the NGC team supported them with continuous HALE ISR missions. The Global Hawk provided the first-ever UAS to search, detect, identify and direct an engagement of a hostile target. In addition, the Global Hawk was the first ISR platform to fly into a strategic air defense environment and was the lynch pin in finding Qaddafi. These great actions accelerated an end to the Libya conflict. From its main operating base at Beale AFB, CA, the NGC/USAF team provided routine HALE ISR support to US Northern Command and US Southern Command while undergoing initial operational testing and evaluation. The NGC team enabled ISR operations into a dozen countries and hot spots that these Theater Commanders would not have information otherwise. In addition, the NGC logistics professionals stood up a second main operating base to support the Block 20 BACN and Block 40 advanced electronically scanned array ground moving target indicator aircraft. The surge support of Libyan operations and the Japan relief efforts were covered without deploying additional staffing. The NGC team went above and beyond the Statement of Work (SOW) in supporting the heightened operational tempo. The team used innovative scheduling to maximize the existing manning to support the surge in both cases. This was done using minimal overtime and avoided expensive Temporary Duty (TDY) costs to the program, the US Government and ultimately the taxpayer. In addition, operations at the CENTCOM FOL leveraged Navy program contractors to assist with AF modifications to avoid cost growth. The teams at Guam and Sigonella completed numerous depot level actions alleviating the need for the deployment of contractor field teams: the phenomenal organizational level contractor support supplanted the need for more time-consuming depot level actions, including costly deployments. The team received that James G. Roche Award for availability metrics improvement in This award serves as testimony to the value chain optimization strides made by the group. 4

5 5

6 Phase I Program Narrative 3 Achieving Affordability Goals Innovative affordability such as this is one of the primary reasons Global Hawk has under- run the cost targets on every sustainment contract. Since 2010, the Global Hawk cost per flying hour has been slashed every year. The Global Hawk, demonstrated a decreasing cost per flight hour (-20%), declining cost per operational hour (-21%), declining total ownership cost (-19%), and declining Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) cost (-11%). At the same time, the NGC Global Hawk sustainment team has delivered the aircraft and sorties for 5 times fewer maintenance-hours-per-flight-hour than comparable HALE ISR aircraft. Throughout this period, the NGC logistics team significantly increased the Global Hawk fleet s performance enabling it to rise from sorties per month in 2010 to more than 60 each month in It identified and resolved a number of aircraft and system reliability issues improving the primary sensor (Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite or EISS) from 32 hours mean-time-between-failure to over 300 hours MTBF. During this same time, the overall aircraft mission capable rate climbed from a low of 29% in 2010 to over 80% in points higher than the USAF goal. guerrge Mar 31, 7:44 PM Added Text 6

7 7

8 Phase I Program Narrative 4 Systems Integration It should be noted that during this period the overall performance of the Global Hawk System exceeded Air Force requirements in several critical performance criteria. The Mission Capable Rate which has an Air Force established target of >60% rose from 60% in April 2011 to 80% in March The Not Mission Capable Supply Rate declined from 28% in April 2011 to 10% in March 2012 against an Air Force target of 26%. Finally the Not Mission Capable Maintenance Rate which has an Air Force target of 25% went from 17% in April 2011 to 14% in March Additionally, other areas which do not have identified targets but which still are indicative of system reliability and maintainability such as Mean Repair Time, Maintenance Man Hour per Flight Hour, Mean Time Between Unscheduled Removal, and Mean Time Between Maintenance all showed significant improvement of at least 25%. During Congressional testimony, the Department of Defense stated that the Global Hawk was essential to national security. This incredibly capable platform costs $220M less than the U-2 on an annual basis while providing unequalled ISR capabilities for the war fighter. guerrge Mar 31, 7:47 PM Added: Paragraph Break 8

9 9