Acquisition & Logistics Excellence

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1 Nomination Window Open for 2018 AF Innovation Award AIR FORCE PERSONNEL CENTER PUBLIC AFFAIRS (DEC. 6, 2017) Kat Bailey JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas Application packages for the 2018 General Larry O. Spencer Innovation Award, based on contributions occurring between April 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018, are due to the Air Force Personnel Center by April 20, This Air Force-level award recognizes an individual or team that demonstrates innovation to improve efficiency, operational readiness, and replication of the innovation across the Air Force. Total Force Airmen active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian are eligible to submit applications, and teams must be led by a uniformed Airman. Organization- and base-level personnel must contact their major command, combatant command, field operating agency, direct reporting unit, or MAJCOM-equivalent for applicable suspense dates and additional information regarding nomination procedures. Each MAJCOM, COCOM, FOA, or DRU may submit one nomination for an individual and one for a team. Complete application procedures and eligibility requirements are available on mypers from a CAC-enabled computer. Select Any from the dropdown menu and search Spencer. For more information about Air Force personnel programs, go to mypers. Eligible individuals who do not have a mypers account can request one by following the instructions at the MyPers Support website. U.S. Air Force graphic/kat Bailey 1

2 Nomination Window Open for 2018 USAF Alison Award for Character and Innovation AIR FORCE PERSONNEL CENTER PUBLIC AFFAIRS (DEC. 21, 2017) Kat Bailey JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas Nomination packages for the 2018 U.S. Air Force Alison Award for Character and Innovation are due to the Air Force Personnel Center by May 31, The U.S. Air Force Academy Falcon Foundation established the award to recognize a commissioned officer who exemplifies the Air Force core values. The foundation sponsors the award in recognition of demonstrated outstanding character and innovation in a single act or a series of related events during a single year. The recipient will receive the award at the annual Falcon Foundation Banquet in October 2018 at the Air Force Academy. Maj. Gen. John R. Alison, for whom the award was named, was a highly decorated World War II combat ace and veteran of the Korean War who became known as the father of Air Force Special Operations. On his death, Alison s family asked that donations in his honor be sent to the Falcon Foundation and the Air Force Association. Organization- and base-level personnel must contact their major or combatant command, forward operating agency, direct reporting unit or MAJCOM-equivalent for applicable suspense dates and additional information regarding nomination procedures. Each MAJCOM, COCOM, FOA, DRU and MAJCOM-equivalent may submit one nomination. Find additional information about nomination eligibility criteria, process, and other specifics on mypers using a CACenabled computer. Select Any from the dropdown menu and search Alison. Prior to posting the list on mypers, AFPC provided senior raters with advanced knowledge of their officers selection to allow notification through the chain of command. For more information about Air Force personnel programs, go to mypers. Eligible individuals who do not have a mypers account can request one by following the instructions at the MyPers Support website. AFRL Team Takes Top Honors at International Artificial Intelligence Competition 88TH AIR BASE WING PUBLIC AFFAIRS (DEC. 5, 2017) Bryan Ripple WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio As part of an increased commitment to autonomy research, a team from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base recently entered and won the Large-Scale Movie Description Challenge at the 2017 International Conference on Computer Vision in Venice, Italy. International open competitions such as the LSMDC provide an objective assessment of the latest state-of-the-art in cutting edge Artificial Intelligence technology, said Dr. Vincent Velten, AFRL s Multi-Domain Sensing Autonomy Division Decision Science Branch Technical advisor. The goal of the LSMDC was to automatically generate a simple one-sentence description of the actions or activities that occur in a 4-5 second video clip from a movie. Participants were given access to a training data set of clips and associated human-generated sentences and were required to provide an algorithm for independent human evaluation against a blind test set of movie clips. The AFRL team, comprised of Dr. Scott Clouse, senior research engineer at the Decision Science Branch; Oliver Nina, a Ph.D. student from Ohio State University and also a research intern on a Defense Department Science, Mathemat- 2

3 Dr. Scott Clouse, Air Force Research Laboratory Decision Science Branch, Multi-Domain Sensing Autonomy Division, Sensors Directorate senior research engineer, said although there are significant improvements yet to be made on their work, with being able to take advantage of all the data and compute they have now, they re on a path to making leaps and bounds in improvements in a lot of different facets of life not yet achieved. Courtesy photo ics and Research for Transformation, or SMART, Scholarship for Service fellowship at AFRL; and Nina s advisor, Dr. Alper Yilmaz, also from OSU, were victorious over world leaders in Artificial Intelligence research such as Facebook AI research, the University of Toronto, and Ecole Polytechnic de Montreal. This result prominently places the AFRL team in the AI research field and demonstrates an advanced technology that is a key enabling component of Air Force autonomy goals, said Velten. This technique can eventually be used to automate the screening of video streams to alert operators to operationally important events for systems such as Predator/Reaper and Global Hawk. Nina said humans, in the form of a three-judge panel, evaluated the submitted algorithms rather than computers as in previous years. For people who are hearing or visually impaired, enjoying a commercial film sometimes requires additional support beyond the traditional format. That may be provided by some kind of accessibility to that media. One of the means of doing that are audio descriptive services that provide sort of an audio book version of the film so people can enjoy it, explained Clouse. The goal of the LSMDC challenge was to produce a system that can turn such a film into this audio description format. Currently, they re produced in kind of a theatrical way, just like the film is, where you have writers converting a script or a screenplay into more of a prose format, said Clouse. The reader then has to be skilled enough to convey the information in a more theatrical type of way. Then the movie dialogue plays along as it would normally, so they kind of have to interject as they go with the film. In addition to the dialogue, you want to describe what s going on. That s the point of descriptive services for people who, in particular, are visually impaired. The point is to generate these services in an automated way to cut down on the cost of generating the capability, explained Clouse. 3

4 Because of the cost and time required to produce these kinds of descriptions, it is not easy to access them for a lot of different films and television shows, said Clouse. There are a very limited number of these available. It s a very human-intensive process to generate these materials so it s the fundamental limitation of the throughput of people. If you can generate them automatically, then you ve got a nice description as well as the audio that goes along with the film. The Air Force would like to similarly produce descriptions of video sequences that are captured from surveillance platforms or any kind of data feed, according to Clouse. Video is very popular with the sharp end of the Air Force because people very naturally deal with watching video and understanding what s going on there, added Velten. However, there is a lot of it and not that many people to do the equivalent of this sort of function for a military application. Analysts may have to watch 50 hours of video to find 5 minutes of something interesting that s militarily pertinent and matters for intelligence purposes or even for doing a special operations mission rehearsal, said Velten. This sort of technology would allow us to index clips, like you would in a library, and just show us the interesting parts. The nice thing is that there s a civilian analogue to it and so there is a lot of great civilian research and the AFRL team showed they are at the forefront of that. The real motivation for the military is to be able to sort through enormous amounts of video and describe actions that are going on, said Velten. The team worked with 101,000 short video clips that were provided for this year s competition. The algorithm they developed takes the video clips and produces a sort of abstract summary that is then translated into human-readable phrases. A great deal of computer crunching was required to do this and the team was able to use the super computer called Thunder at AFRL s Defense Department Supercomputing Resource Center, said Velten. Thunder is part of the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program. Velten added that without Thunder, the research would not have been possible. We re trying to mimic what the brain is doing, said Nina. We can help the blind, or the visually impaired. Together we can reach great goals to help humanity and to help the Air Force defend our country. Clouse indicated there are many significant improvements yet to be made, but with being able to take advantage of all the data they have now, there s a path to making improvements by leaps and bounds in a lot of different facets of life not yet achieved. The whole point is to produce systems that can have more human-like qualities in terms of their ability to not only produce output from fairly limited input, but also to produce output that human beings can trust. This is a very difficult problem. Obviously, this has enormous defense applications, but even larger societal and commercial applications. There are some potentially very impressive things right around the corner, said Velten. Upgrades to Missile Detection Radar Earns Civilian Recognition 66TH AIR BASE GROUP PUBLIC AFFAIRS (DEC. 7, 2017) Benjamin Newell HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. America s nuclear deterrent relies in part on 25, year-old solid state modules, divided between five massive Northern Hemisphere radar sites, which amplify the radiation needed to detect incoming ballistic missiles. Dr. Donald Hoying, the radar s program manager at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, leads a team of 50 military and government civilians and contractors who are working to upgrade these SSMs while improving the radar s satellite, space-borne object and missile detection capabilities. In November, Hoying won the 2017 Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Outstanding Civilian Acquisition Program Manager Award for his efforts. At a recent event, Gen. John Hyten, U.S. Strategic Command commander, addressed the importance of sensors to deterring nuclear attack. When I was asked in front of Congress, can we improve the missile defense capability, I said we can, Hyten said. We can do it by improving our sensor capabilities first. Because a nuclear attack could come at any time, there is no option to shut down one of the five radars for repairs. Hoying, who leads AFLCMC s Ballistic Missile Early Warning System sustainment effort in the Strategic Warning and Surveillance Systems Division at Peterson AFB, said his team 4

5 radars to survive electromagnetic pulses, protected sites against cyberattack, and consolidated multiple sustainment contracts, saving the government $50 million. SSM replacement, the largest update underway, will address an estimated 25,000 aging components in the BMEWS system, positioning the radars for expanded future capability. You can think of it like open-heart surgery. You are fixing critical components, but the patient s heart needs to keep beating, said Hoying. To that end, we often build the new capabilities side-by-side with the old, so we can rapidly switch between the two until the new system is proven to work. DoD Salutes Acquisition Workforce at Pentagon Ceremony DOD NEWS, DEFENSE MEDIA ACTIVITY (DEC. 7, 2017) Terri Moon Cronk WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2017 The Defense Department honored 17 individuals and two organizations within the department s acquisition community yesterday in the Pentagon s Hall of Heroes. Dr. Donald Hoying holds a solid state module at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., Nov. 29, Hoying is Air Force Life Cycle Management Center s Strategic Warning and Surveillance Systems division Ballistic Missile Early Warning System sustainment program manager. He recently won AFLCMC s Outstanding Civilian Acquisition Program Manager Award for leading a team of 50 personnel who are replacing 25,000 SSMs, which are 40-year-old components installed on five Northern Hemisphere radar sites. U.S. Air Force photo/robert Lingley is improving the long-range missile attack sensors while minimizing operational impacts. We know this system is valuable to our senior leaders and our national security, Hoying said. We also know that these radars were installed some 40 years ago, and they cannot fail. We re always looking for new ways to keep them online as we upgrade capabilities, or fix aging components. That s the interesting part minimizing the downtime, keeping the capability online, and doing something as extensive as the SSM replacement. The award is Hoying s most recent of many for his role in addressing key capability upgrades. His team hardened Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan, who hosted the 2017 Defense Acquisition Workforce awards ceremony, said the 165,000 acquisition professionals within the Defense Department comprise a group that gets things done behind the scenes. Today is about recognizing the strength that we ve built up in acquisition, the deputy secretary said. In 2016, we did 269,000 contracts. That s unbelievable, Shanahan said. All of you in the acquisition system are simultaneously improving it. Congratulating the awardees, he said, You re an inspiration to those of us who are new to the Pentagon. You re the people we ll go to and listen to, and you ll help [DoD] become even more competitive than we are today. Ellen M. Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics thanked the award winners and told them, You re making a difference both here in the Pentagon, to our nation, and to all of our allies and partners around the world. Winners in the individual achievement awards category are: Skip Hinman, Air Force, requirements management; Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Tamalia Adams, acquisition in an expeditionary environment; 5

6 Melissa Panarelli, Defense Contract Audit Agency, auditing; Gary Trimble, Navy, contracting and procurement; Wilson Rosa, Navy, cost estimating; Air Force Lt. Col. Andrew Vrabec, Air Force, earned value management; Daniel Carroll, U.S. Southern Command, engineering; Valerie Clinkenbeard, Army, facilities engineering; Jeffrey Martin, Air Force, financial management; Michael Cirillo, Marine Corps, information technology; George Graham Jr., U.S. Special Operations Command, life cycle logistics; Navy Capt. Charles Stuart, Navy, production, quality and manufacturing; Marine Corps Lt. Col. Thomas Atkinson, SOCOM, program management; Charles Bass Jr., Army, science and technology manager; Ulises Cartaya, SOCOM, services acquisition; Lee Rosenberg, Missile Defense Agency, small business; and Thomas Sachse, Navy, test and evaluation. Winners in workforce development innovation awards are: Large organization: Defense Contract Management Agency, Fort Lee, Virginia; and Small organization: U.S. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida. NAVSEA Commonality Team s Findings Could Save Millions in Fleet Maintenance Costs NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER PHILADELPHIA DIVISION PUBLIC AFFAIRS (DEC. 8, 2017) Matt Leonard PHILADELPHIA The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAV- SEA) Commonality Lead Support Activity (CLSA) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia Division (NSW- CPD) recently completed a deep dive analysis on Electrical Composite Enclosures. Implementing the recommendations of this analysis will reduce ships force maintenance burden, as well as the total ownership cost of ships across the fleet. The analysis demonstrates how the Commonality Team is supporting the NAVSEA priority to promote a culture of affordability. Shipboard electrical enclosures, such as those used for power junction and communication devices, are constantly exposed to the sea s harsh environment. Over time, the exposure results in significant maintenance effort and cost to the Navy. Because of this, the Commonality Team identified enclosures as an opportune project for deep dive analysis. The team compared the metallic enclosures used throughout the fleet, against enclosures made of a plastic composite. The analysis found that use of the composite material will not only prevent corrosion of the enclosures themselves, but also the resulting corrosion that forms on hull areas adjacent to the enclosures. The analysis addressed both recurring and non-recurring costs, and provided calculations of total ownership cost for both metallic and composite enclosures. The Commonality Team s calculations demonstrate that full implementation of composite enclosures across the fleet has the potential to save the Navy over $76 million in recurring maintenance and sparing costs over a 30-year period. Commonality Initiative NAVSEA s initiative for Commonality began in 2007 and NSWCPD has been involved with this effort since the beginning. We ve been honing our skills in the area of Commonality for many years with our participation in various deep dives, as well as the development of the Virtual Shelf, said Ezio Treglia, NSWCPD s Commonality team lead. The Virtual Shelf is a searchable database of items, parts, and specifications. NSWCPD developed the Virtual Shelf as a resource for shipyards, ship design managers, in-service engineering agents, and other stakeholders to aid in identifying equipment and components that are qualified for crossplatform use. The tool will aid in the effort to increase the use of common components across the fleet and reduce total ownership costs. The Commonality Team is also involved in Virtual Shelf reviews that keep it current and relevant. The reviews involve analyzing part and specification data to ensure that items determined to be obsolete or redundant have been removed and to confirm the overall database accuracy. The team conducts reviews either annually or biennially as determined by the Technical Warrant Holder with responsibility over the specific area. Since 2015, the team has completed reviews on 82 technical part and specification Virtual Shelf review categories, involving more than 21,000 individual part changes. Commonality Lead Support Activity In 2016, NSWCPD was established as the CLSA for NAVSEA through a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The CLSA s purpose is to lead the effort to reduce the number of unique systems, subsystems, and components introduced into the fleet inventory for new ship construc- 6

7 tion, major modernization, and planned maintenance. This directly supports a culture of affordability. The MOU outlines 22 Enterprise Commonality responsibilities for the CLSA. The initiatives include collectively managing the infrastructure of the Commonality Virtual Shelf repository; conducting TWH-approved specification and part variation reduction deep dives; and further refining the Commonality tools that can reduce total ownership cost across the fleet. The CLSA also has a role in Commonality education and training. To this end, the team has developed a Commonality awareness computer-based training module. This training is accessible in the Navy s Total Workforce Management System, Course Title: NAVSEA Commonality Training, Course ID: TWMS In fiscal 2018, the Commonality Team expects to launch Virtual Shelf 3.0. This update will increase the capabilities of the data search function, and introduce enhancements to the user interface. NSWCPD provides the Navy s primary technical expertise for naval machinery research and development, and in-service engineering, as well as machinery cybersecurity and life-cycle engineering. For more information, visit For more news from Naval Sea Systems Command, visit Malmstrom AFB Unit Earns Top DoD Maintenance Award DOD NEWS, DEFENSE MEDIA ACTIVITY (DEC. 8, 2017) WASHINGTON The 341st Maintenance Group, 341st Missile Wing, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, is this year s recipient of the Defense Department s Phoenix Award for Maintenance Excellence, according to DoD officials. The department announced the Phoenix Award winner at this year s Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards ceremony, Dec. 5. The Phoenix Award is presented annually to designate the single best maintenance unit out of six Secretary of Defense Field-Level Maintenance Award winners. In fiscal year 2016, the 341st Maintenance Group led three major modernization efforts at their facilities, including a $6 million upgrade to the Re-entry System/Re-entry Vehicle maintenance facility, a $14.6 million upgrade to the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile maintenance facility, and a $20 million upgrade to their training facilities. The group s efforts propelled them to the top of many of Air Force Global Strike Command s combat metrics, including best launch control center fully mission capable rate, best scheduling effectiveness rate, best minimum essential equipment levels rate, and best transporter erector service rate. The group also reduced its overdue preventive maintenance inspections to the lowest level in command. The professionalism and commitment to excellence demonstrated by the men and women of the 341st Maintenance Group unquestionably demonstrates the unit s worthiness in being recognized as this year s best field-level maintenance unit in DoD, officials said. Autonomous Flight Technology to Provide Rapid Resupply for Marines OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH (DEC. 14, 2017) Warren Duffie Jr. MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. Cutting-edge technology sponsored by the Office of Naval Research may one day enable the Marine Corps to resupply combatdeployed troops via unmanned aerial vehicles, officials announced. A successful final helicopter flight demonstration was achieved here Dec. 12 with autonomous capability as part of the Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System program. AACUS is a partnership between ONR and technology company Aurora Flight Sciences. Sensor, Software Package The system consists of a sensor and software package that can be integrated into any manned or unmanned rotary-wing aircraft to detect and avoid obstacles like telephone wires, other vehicles, or large ground objects in unfavorable weather conditions or to facilitate autonomous, unmanned flight. This capability will be a welcome alternative to dangerous convoys or manned aircraft missions in all types of weather. This is more than just an unmanned helicopter, said Walter Jones, ONR executive director. AACUS is an autonomy kit that can be placed on any rotary-wing platform and provide it with an autonomous capability. Imagine a Marine Corps unit deployed in a remote location, in rough terrain, needing ammunition, water, batteries or even blood. Jones added, With AACUS, an unmanned helicopter takes the supplies from the base, picks out the optimal route and best landing site closest to the warfighters, lands, and returns to base once the resupply is complete all with the single touch of a hand-held tablet. 7

8 A UH-1 Huey helicopter equipped with an Office of Naval Research-sponsored Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System autonomy kit makes an approach for landing during final testing at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., Dec. 12, U.S. Navy photo/john F. Williams The need for this capability surfaced during Marine Corps operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, officials said. Cargo helicopters and resupply convoys of trucks bringing fuel, food, water, ammunition, and medical supplies to the front lines frequently found themselves under enemy fire or the target of roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices. Easy to Use AACUS is designed for simple use. An operator with minimal training can call up the supplies needed and order the flights using only an intuitive handheld tablet. During the Dec. 12 demonstration tests at Quantico, a Marine with no prior experience with the technology was given a handheld device and 15 minutes of training. The Marine was able to quickly and easily program in the supplies needed and the destination, and the helicopters arrived quickly even autonomously selecting an alternative landing site based on last-second, no-fly-zone information added in from the Marine. The demonstration featured a UH-1 Huey helicopter flying autonomously on multiple missions. We ve developed this great capability ahead of requirements and it s up to us to determine how to use it, said Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, commanding general, Marine Corps Combat Development Command. The young Marines today have grown up in a tech-savvy society, which is an advantage. We ve got to keep pushing and moving this technology forward. Officials say AACUS represents a leap-ahead technology for the Marine Corps and Navy, moving unmanned flights far beyond the current standard, which requires a specialized operator to select a landing site and manually control an unmanned aircraft via remote. AACUS gives revolutionary capability to our fleet and force, said Dennis Baker, AACUS program manager. It can be used as a pilot aid to operate in GPS- and communications-denied arenas, or allow fully autonomous flights in 8

9 contested environments keeping our pilots and crews out of harm s way. DoD Announces Defense Enterprise Science Initiative to Support University-Industry Basic Research DOD, DEFENSE MEDIA ACTIVITY, PRESS OPERATIONS (JAN. 3, 2018) The Department of Defense (DoD) announced an award competition for the Defense Enterprise Science Initiative (DESI), a new pilot program that supports university-industry collaboration on use-inspired basic research. DESI is sponsored by the Basic Research Office, Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and executed in collaboration with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Army Research Office. DESI incentivizes use-inspired basic research, or a scientific study directed toward increasing fundamental knowledge and understanding in the context of end-use applications. Projects funded by DESI will bring together university and industry teams with the aim of discovering novel solutions to challenging defense and national security problems. Through these projects, DESI aims to accelerate the impact of basic research results on defense capabilities, inform existing or future acquisition programs, and support sustainable collaboration between the nation s universities and the private sector. This year s announcement is themed around technologies to enable a new generation of sensing, mobility, and autonomy. Research topics include power beaming, highly maneuverable autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle, soft active composites, and metamaterial-based antennas. Additional topic areas identified by the applicants will also be considered. For more information, please see the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) FA S-B001 at html?oppid= DoD Recognizes DCMA for Workforce Innovation DEFENSE CONTRACT MANAGEMENT AGENCY PUBLIC AFFAIRS (JAN. 10, 2018) FORT LEE, Va. One of the Defense Contract Management Agency s longest-running workforce development programs was recently recognized by the Department of Defense. It wasn t the past success of the Keystone program that brought it to the department s attention, however, it was the agency s focus on the program s future. A comprehensive redevelopment of the program over the past two years led to significant changes, and in December, to the agency receiving the DoD s 2017 Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Innovation Award. Kathy Butera, executive director of DCMA Human Capital, said that for the past 20 years, the Keystone program has recruited, developed, and managed entry-level acquisition workforce employees, typically recent college graduates or individuals with work experience in non-acquisition roles. The program brings in about 150 employees annually, who spend three years developing technical skills through formal training and developmental assignments, leading to Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act Level II certification, said Butera. Once an individual completes the program, they are typically considered an outstanding candidate and placed in a journeyman position with DCMA. In late 2015, an agency team began looking at all aspects of the Keystone program to ensure it would continue to support future mission requirements. Led by Human Capital s Strategic Learning Division and including a cross-section of agency leaders from the director to former Keystones the team s goals were to increase the attractiveness of the program to potential new employees; strengthen current Keystones abilities to reach high levels of professional skills and proficiencies; ensure uniformity of training across the agency; and build comradery among those in the program. Among the results of the study were changes to how Keystones manning requirements are identified, and how individuals are recruited. The new system looks closer at anticipated needs in three years, when Keystones graduate from the program, and takes into consideration job series needs common to DCMA, such as contract administration, quality assurance, and engineering. Once Keystones are in the program, they ll initially be treated as a cohort, with a headquarters-based orientation and training program called the Keystone Boot Camp, designed to provide an introduction to DCMA s mission and worldwide operations, as well as opportunities to meet senior-level agency management. This gives new participants a chance to network with each other, and set career development goals. To improve and assure consistent on-boarding, mentoring, and ongoing training after the Boot Camp, DCMA is establishing regional training hubs designed to improve Keystone coordination across the agency by providing support to each Keystone s professional and career development. 9

10 Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, presents the 2017 Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Innovation Award to the Defense Contract Management Agency at a Dec. 6 ceremony at the Pentagon. From left are Lord; Kathy Butera, executive director, DCMA Human Capital; Marie Greening, DCMA deputy director; Chris Zubof, director, DCMA Strategic Learning Division; Patrick Shanahan, deputy secretary of defense; Army Lt. Gen. Anthony Ierardi, director of force structure, resources and assessment, Joint Staff. U.S. Army photo/spc. Tammy Nooner Butera said the investment in the total Keystone program has been calculated to provide DCMA with a strengthened process that gives individuals a well-crafted and well-supervised developmental experience. Keystones are viewed by the agency as the next generation of journeyman employees, with high potential for continued service as DCMA senior leaders, she concluded. Agency leaders expect the revamped program will well position us for future success. AFWERX is Smart Risk for Innovative Solutions 99TH AIR BASE WING PUBLIC AFFAIRS (JAN. 12, 2018) Master Sgt. Heidi West NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. Historically, the Air Force has remained the world s preeminent air and space fighting force by forging innovators from within the ranks, empowering them to problem solve, and providing them the resources to do so. Today, the Air Force is formally expanding this call for innovation through the AFWERX program, which encourages partnerships with academic institutions, science and technology communities, and private industries with an invested interest in solving complex security issues. According to Air Force leadership, the secretary of the Air Force established the AFWERX program to facilitate the integration and implementation of creative and disruptive technology to ensure today s airmen maintain the capability advantage over tomorrow s adversary. Airmen are the ones closest to the problems, the people at the tip of the spear, who understand the problems, who understand the enemy, and have the ideas to make us more lethal, said Capt. Steven Lauver, AFWERX Air Force Technology Accelerator co-director. It all exists with the people who are there solving the problems on the battlefield. Innovation is important because we are taking the people who understand our problems and enabling them to solve them. Private industries are moving exponentially faster than the Defense Department in autonomous technology. Recruiting innovative solutions from these outside resources requires 10

11 the Air Force to take a chance before the technology becomes obsolete, Lauver said. It s a higher risk not to act than to act, Lauver said. If we don t begin executing on the innovation conversation, then we are going to fall behind on a global scale. AFWERX is the first step in furthering that conversation. Each AFWERX facility will serve as an innovation hub to bring tools and resources together in physical, open, first stop public access points. The goal of the program is to create a mutually beneficial partnership with innovators and entrepreneurs to generate technology at an accelerated rate, Air Force leadership said. When people s lives are on the line, and time is of the essence, you have to be willing to take those smart risks to solve problems quickly, Lauver said. Right now, there is an appetite to try new things and implement new technologies and new solutions to make us better on the battlefield. Navy Research Meteorologists Win Unique AMS Award U.S. NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY PUBLIC AFFAIRS (JAN. 12, 2018) WASHINGTON An interdisciplinary team of scientists, including meteorologists from the Navy Research Laboratory (NRL) s Marine Meteorology Division, received the American Meteorological Society s (AMS) unique Special Award, Jan. 10. The team received the award for providing an innovative suite of satellite passive microwave products to the global tropical cyclone community via a tailored website, enabling enhanced storm monitoring. This honor marks a significant recognition for contributions to the meteorological sciences that fit outside the traditionally defined awards, said Joshua H. Cossuth, Ph.D., U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Providing real-time storm monitoring since 1997, the NRL tropical cyclone (TC) satellite analysis team were early adopters of storm-centric processing and internet broadcast of satellite data through the creation of NRL TC Web. Using information provided by operational TC forecast centers via NRL s Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) system, near real-time processing of value-added products from satellite imagery were created for TC-centric analyses around the world. NRL TC Web has made these analyses of TC position, intensity, and structure an indispensable part of the forecasting toolbox at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, National Hurricane Center, and Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Current and former members of the NRL Tropical Cyclone Satellite Analysis Team include Richard L. Bankert, Joshua H. Cossuth, Jeffrey D. Hawkins, Thomas F. Lee, Kim A. Richardson, Charles R. Sampson, Melinda L. Surratt, and Song Yang (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory - Monterey [NRL-MRY]); F. Joseph Turk (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL]); John E. Kent (Science Applications International Corporation [SAIC]); and Jeremy E. Solbrig (Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere [CIRA]). The AMS annual awards honor outstanding individuals and organizations of the weather, water, and climate community. Special awards are presented to individuals, teams of individuals, or organizations not appropriately recognized by more specifically defined awards, who have made important contributions to the science or practice of meteorology, related aspects of oceanography or hydrology, or to the society. For more information, visit For more news from Naval Research Laboratory, visit navy.mil or NAWCWD Team Gets International Award for Cooperative Efforts NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION (JAN. 23, 2018) NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION, POINT MUGU, Calif. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division s ALQ-227 Low-band Geolocation Team earned The Technical Cooperation Program s 2017 Electronic Warfare Systems Group Team Award; they received the award in a Jan. 11 ceremony in the Pentagon s Hall of Heroes. The team, working in concert with TTCP s EW Group Multi- Panel Geolocation Team, supported a multinational geolocation transition project that helped evolve the EA-18G Growler s electronic warfare capabilities. The new baseline geolocation capability, which has been flight tested on an EA-18G, will provide single ship geolocation capabilities against specific emitters of interest, wrote Joan Johnson, NAWCWD executive director, in a memorandum supporting the team s nomination. The capability will be a requirement in an upcoming Block Upgrade for the Growler. 11

12 The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory s Marine Meteorology Division in Monterey, California, houses a team of scientists and engineers who work in conjunction with the lab s broader scientific community to provide the fleet with the most accurate weather forecasts possible. U.S. Navy photo This effort is an excellent example of pull-through of TTCP activities and sharing the burden of our joint defense needs for a more secure world, she continued. TTCP is an international organization that collaborates in defense scientific and technical information exchange; program harmonization and alignment; and shared research activities for the governments of United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. U.S. participation is led by the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering. U.S. members of the team were: John Allred, Steve Fisher, Mike Hancock, John Koch, Katie Nazeck, Kristen Noor, Charlene Parr, Parth Patel, Vinh Phan, William Reynolds, Jon Risden, Nate Sherwood, Genesis Smith, and Jose Tristan. ilab: See Where Sailors and Innovation Meet DOD, DEFENSE MEDIA ACTIVITY (JAN. 23, 2018) Like any other organization, the Navy is not perfect. Many times sailors ask why things must be done a certain way. Often, they re convinced they know a more effective way. Sometimes, they re right. The Innovation Lab, better known as the ilab, gives sailors a chance to take those ideas and possibly turn them into reality. We believe that [for] many of problems that sailors are experiencing right now, there are solutions, said Lt. Cmdr. Chris Keithley, ilab s military advisor. Unfortunately, they re nascent inside of the Sailors heads, and getting to the point of actually developing a prototype and testing that idea is rather difficult. What we do here is try to take in these ideas, show it to our staff here at [Submarine Force Pacific], and propose how we can proceed forward with it. Established in 2016, the ilab is located at the Naval Submarine Training Center Pacific. Although the room is small in size, it s jam-packed with the latest virtual and augmented reality technology. The ilab team also offers tours in hopes of inspiring Sailors to come up with and share ideas to improve the fleet. Featured technologies at the ilab include: a virtual map for the undersea environment; a 3D display that allows users to use a special pen to practice maintenance on equipment used on ships; and a system that virtually places users in aircraft, ships, or submarines using holographs. 12

13 Mary Miller, acting assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering, left, poses with representatives from the Electronic Warfare System Multi-Panel Geolocation Transition Team during an award ceremony Jan. 11 in the Pentagon s Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C. U.S. Army photo We ve had about 550 sailors through the ilab in its first nine months of operations, said Chris Bretz, ilab s team lead. We got about 70 or 80 ideas, [and] the staff has reviewed and picked half a dozen to focus on and build out as prototypes. The mission of the lab is exactly that; capture ideas from the sailors [to fix] their problems that they see in ship s operations, training and maintenance, and apply cutting-edge technology to make it better, faster, cheaper, and more effective. One prototype that is being tested is an unmanned aerial vehicle that can track sailors who accidentally fall into the ocean while out to sea. That technology is the unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly referred to as UAV, which Keithley wants to utilize to save sailors lives during man overboard drills. As a submarine officer, Keithley is aware of the challenges when a sailor goes overboard. The entire ship is called into action to ensure the missing sailor is identified and found before too much time has passed. Keithley himself has performed numerous man overboard drills. His idea came to him when he was learning about UAV technology and the many things it can do. It can be very difficult to find low profile objects from a submarine, especially when you re using your own eyeballs to cue in and find the guy and drive your ship toward him, said Keithley. The idea came out of that. Why don t we have a UAV that could launch, go find the guy, and automatically keep over him and provide visual cuing so the boat can drive toward that UAV? The technology already existed in bits and pieces, he concluded. It s only a matter of time before it is implemented out in the fleet as an efficient and cost-effective way to not only save lives, but also to make shipboard life easier and more efficient. The next step was turning his idea into reality. He took an active part in testing how a hypothetical man overboard rescue could go if assisted by a UAV, for example. I actually got in the water in Hawaii and swam out, and they flew a UAV over me to see what it would look like, he said. The personnel at the ilab have high hopes of implementing this and other ideas developed into the fleet, and see value in using augmented and virtual reality for training purposes. Money, overall, is tight, said Bretz. Augmented reality [and] virtual reality offer an alternative, or at least a comple- 13

14 Sailors test Virtual Reality technology at the ilab, where they have the opportunity to turn their ideas for innovation into reality. U.S. Navy photos ment to brick and mortar training. Building a $5 million dollar building may have been possible in the past, but it s not today. With augmented reality [and] virtual reality solutions for training delivery, you can have 20, 50, [or] 100 sailors [train] for no more money. Instead of having the sailors come to the facility to do the training, it can be taken to the sailors at their locations. If you have an idea you think will benefit the Navy, you can submit it to ilab at cspilab@navy.mil. Awards Honor Acquisition s Finest U.S. ARMY ACQUISITION SUPPORT CENTER (JAN. 25, 2018) Tara Clements WASHINGTON The U.S. Army Acquisition Executive (AAE) s Excellence in Leadership Awards were announced at a ceremony Jan. 18 at the Pentagon, with this year s honorees representing excellence across such fields as missile defense, workforce development, rapid fielding, logistics, and Soldier equipment. Hon. Bruce D. Jette, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, ASA(ALT), hosted the awards ceremony, which was also attended by Dr. Mark T. Esper, secretary of the Army, and Jeffrey S. White, principal deputy to the ASA(ALT). Among the multiple award winners were the Program Executive Office (PEO) for Missiles and Space (MS), which received three individual awards, and PEO Aviation, which received an individual award and a group award. William A. Breffeilh, deputy project manager for the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System within PEO MS, was named Acquisition Support Professional of the Year. Breffeilh oversaw an $872 million upgrade to the Patriot missile system that included hardware and software improvements and nearly half a million source lines of code. Breffeilh, who served as acting project manager for six months, also established an organizational professional development program, and his mentorship was a factor in one of his senior employees being selected as a deputy product manager. Daniel S. Hemeyer, also with PEO MS, received the Thomas E. Tom Mullins Business Operations Professional of the Year award. Hemeyer is director of the Program Management Directorate for the Lower Tier Project Office, and manages two Acquisition Category I programs. He was instrumental in identifying and implementing efficiency initiatives that yielded cost savings of more than $23 million, and leveraged more than $1.025 billion in cost avoidance from the Patriot International Engineering Services Program and more than $300 million in cost avoidance from the Patriot Field Surveillance Program and technology refresh initiatives. Rounding out the individual awards at PEO MS is Thomas N. Doss, who was named Defense Exportability and Cooperation Professional of the Year. Doss manages the largest and most complex foreign military sales portfolio of any PEO in the Army, serving 43 partner nations with a combined case value of approximately $43.6 billion. His leadership during case development activities resulted in the receipt of a Letter of Request from Poland that represents an opportunity for the United States to strengthen its partnerships in Eastern Europe by countering potential aggression and to bolster the U.S. defense industrial base. Billy R. McCain, product support manager for the Product Manager for Global Combat Support System Army (GCSS- A) within the PEO for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS), was named Logistician of the Year for his work to lead the organization s Deployment Division. GCSS-A is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that replaces aging and stove-piped tactical logistics systems with a web-based, integrated logistics and financial solution. Its fielding rep- 14

15 resents the largest ERP deployment in Army history, and thanks to McCain s leadership, the program office migrated more than 20,000 units from legacy systems to GCSS-Army and improved property accountability of more than $92 billion in assets. Thomas J. Coradeschi, PEO Ammunition, was named Science and Technology Professional of the Year. Coradeschi carried out a system requirement review for the 7.62 mm XM1158 Advanced Armor Piercing program, preliminary design review (PDR) for the 40 mm High Velocity M918E1 and 40 mm Low Velocity M781E1 Target Practice Day/ Night/Thermal cartridges, and a system functional review and PDRs for the XM mm Advanced Multi-purpose program. All of these were crucial gates for proceeding to current test programs for these munitions, which are used by warfighters in every Service. Not all of the winners came from PEOs: Nickee L. Abbott, director of Engineering and Integration for the Army Rapid Capabilities Office and chief engineer for the System of Systems Engineering and Integration Directorate, received the Honorable Dr. Claude Bolton Jr. Engineering and Systems Integration Professional of the Year award. Abbott led engineering and systems integration efforts to get capabilities to soldiers more quickly by combining multiple programs of record and emerging technologies from industry and government to create new rapid prototypes. One of these solutions is an electronic warfare capability that addresses an operational needs statement from United States Army Europe against the near-peer Russian threat, and sets a precedent for incremental and rapid integration of prototypes for operational assessment and delivery. The Barbara C. Heald (Deployed Civilian) Special Award was given to Steven B. Piggott for his support of the Expeditionary Contracting Command Afghanistan during Operation Freedom s Sentinel. Piggott, a contract specialist with the U.S. Army Contracting Command New Jersey who deployed as a member of the U.S. Army Contracting Command s Deployable Cadre Program, was responsible for a diverse workload of priority requirements in support of NATO Resolute Support and the Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan (CSTC-A). He provided contract administration for more than 26 contracts valued at more than $416 million, as well as pre-award support and customer requirements generation. The Heald award is one of five Secretary of Army Excellence in Contracting Awards; the remaining awards have not yet been announced. PM Awards Mark Air, Ground Defense Efforts PEO Aviation s Lt. Col. Calvin J. Lane was named the Product Management/Product Director Office Professional of the Year at the O5 Level for his efforts to advance the CH-47F Chinook Block II program. The program achieved Milestone B in early 2017, thanks to Lane s contributions to the completion of an analysis of alternatives, development of an engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) request for proposal, demonstration of the critical technologies, completion of all required documentation, and negotiation of the EMD contract. Col. James W. Schirmer, project manager for Armored Fighting Vehicles within PEO for Ground Combat Systems, received the award for Project Management/Project Director Office Professional of the Year at the O6 Level. Schirmer s leadership kicked off the Mobile Protected Firepower program, while simultaneously moving the Paladin Integrated Management Program toward a full-rate production decision, upgrading the Bradley Fighting Vehicle fleet, and delivering the first combat vehicles in support of the Army s European Deterrence Initiative all on schedule and within budget. A joint product team representing PEO Aviation and PEO Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (PEO IEW&S) received the Product Management/Product Director Office Team of the Year for the O5 Level for its work on the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS). The team culminated a 30-month extensive reorganization of the EMARSS program with a successful follow-on test and evaluation in April Once recognized as one of the Army s most problematic acquisition programs, the EMARSS product team addressed several programmatic challenges to deliver the first 12 EMARSS on schedule and within budget constraints. The AAE s other group award Project Management/Project Director Office Team of the Year for the O6 Level went to the Project Manager Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment (PM SPIE) within the PEO Soldier. PM SPIE s $1.5 billion portfolio includes more than 420 individual items of clothing and individual equipment as well as helmets, body armor, eye protection, and parachutes. The organization reached several milestones throughout 2016, ranging from workforce development to requirements planning. PM SPIE worked with several Army agencies to develop a streamlined requirements process for organizational clothing and individual equipment (OCIE) that reduces the timeline for OCIE requirements validation from more than 24 months to four months, and cuts documentation from hundreds of pages 15