2013 Program Excellence Award. Phase I Submission Name of Program: Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar Command and Control (C-RAM C2)

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1 2013 Program Excellence Award Phase I Submission Name of Program: Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar Command and Control (C-RAM C2) Name of Program Leader: Chris Frei Phone Number: Chris.Frei@ngc.com Postage Address: 1800 Glenn Curtiss St, Carson, CA Name of Customer Representative: Michael Van Rassen Phone Number: Michael.VanRassen@us.army.mil Bio for program leader: Chris Frei is currently the Program Director for the C-RAM C2 program within Northrop Grumman s Defense Systems Division. Chris has over twenty-five years of Army Air Defense Command and Control experience having spent many years as a Systems Engineer prior to entering into program management. Chris graduated from UCLA in 1987 with a Bachelor s of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering. He also holds a Master s Degree in Business Administration from California State University in Long Beach. Chris has been an employee of Northrop Grumman for thirty years. Chris continues to be one of the stellar performers within Defense Systems Division, as he continuously exceeds all of the requirements of the position as Program Manager for the CRAM C2 Program, representing a rare combination of technical breadth, strategic thinking, and customer relationship which sets him apart from his peers. His program team responds extremely well to his leadership (as is indicated by the highest Engagement Scores in the Sector), and as a result, the CRAM C2 program continues to perform well in all aspects of execution, which has resulted in significant organic growth under his direction. On cost and on schedule deliveries have resulted in not only a significantly high customer and user satisfaction level, but has created significant added opportunity within the program, a fact which has been instrumental in the continued growth of the organization. The Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar (C-RAM) capability represents the successful promotion of key Army capabilities to meet the significant demands of evolving threats. The history of the program has a very early beginning, starting in September of 1986, when Northrop Grumman (NG) entered into a contract with the US Army to provide Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) and Forward Area Air Defense (FAAD) command and control to thea-

2 ters of operation, under a contract initially referred to as FAAD C2I. Under this original contract, the Army sought to bring their tactical Air Defense forces into the digital age by replacing binoculars and grease pencils with computers, digital radios and C2 software, digitizing the battlefield in an effort to protect troops from hostile aircraft. NG s relationship with this customer was cemented, as FAAD was the first of all the Army Battlefield Command Systems to successfully field a product to the force in While the technology supporting SHORAD has changed over the years, the underlying commitment by NG to the Army customer, the soldiers, has not. This has been the primary management tenet of the NG team, and has been instrumental in paving the way to help this customer make great strides in supporting the forces, most notably after the start of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). As background, after the fall of the Iraqi Army in late 2003, the United States forces established Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) to provide soldiers with semi-fixed, protected areas for its in country operations. The size and location of these FOBs left each vulnerable to indirect fire attack from insurgents who had large supplies of rockets and mortars. This became a leading threat to United States forces, and ultimately resulted in a call for a system to detect and intercept indirect fire, and warn troops of incoming rockets and mortars. NG promoted to its Army customer that the components of the FAAD C2I system could be modified to meet this requirement, by integrating it with other disparate legacy Defense assets, and providing protection to forces and bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. By treating indirect fire as another type of short range air threat, NG was able to prove that the components of the system could provide this much broader capability, and could field a system under a very aggressive timeline. The NG team suggested that it could integrate FAAD C2I with existing Army Field Artillery radars, warning systems, and weapons to detect, intercept, and defeat the rocket and mortar threat..an effort even more impressive when considering these assets represented products from many defense contractors, the integration which would require unprecedented collaboration, with FAAD C2I as the cornerstone. Once the Army program office became convinced of the possibilities of the NG concept, the C- RAM program was born. This innovative thinking led to a C-RAM capability which was fielded to FOBs in Iraq in less than nine months form conceptualization, reducing casualty counts due to indirect fire at each FOB to nearly zero. Since the first deployment of the C-RAM system in 2005, hundreds or rockets and mortars have been intercepted, and thousands of warnings initiated, saving countless lives, and allowing troops to return home to their families who otherwise may not have been able to. The program continues in its evolution, leveraging the success of this fielded program, but digitally integrating it with other Army capabilities, providing significant new capability to improve the effectiveness of our Army and the soldiers on the ground. This system now offers not only protection to the force, but has

3 evolved its capability to respond to threats and actions, and ultimately shape and diminish the threats from adversaries. In addition to being a significantly positive story for the US Army, C-RAM s successful and expedient integration and collaboration has helped shape the approach for future Army acquisition. The idea of adapting existing disparate systems to adjacent mission areas in a rapid fashion is a cornerstone for what the future holds as Industry supports our defense in challenging times. This allows the US government to take advantage of past investments in systems, providing new capability to the warfighter sooner and in an affordable manner. For many reasons, the C-RAM program is a true Army success story, with many players having a hand in unprecedented results. The key ingredients to Northrop Grumman s C-RAM success story has been (1) strong customer relationships (2) industry partnerships (3) the ability to adapt to a complex environment, and (4) the ability to create value for the customer. Northrop Grumman and the C-RAM program directorate (US Army PEO Missiles and Space) have forged strong relationship over the last twenty-five years. This relationship has been built on communication and trust and has evolved into a true integrated team. Key components to fostering a team atmosphere include: taking care of the people that work for you, creating an open atmosphere throughout all levels of the organization both internal and external, and letting the customer know that they come first (even before the company s interest). Taking care of your employees and creating an open atmosphere is critical to building loyalty to the team. When you want to accomplish a goal, you need commitment from everyone. If people are loyal to the team, they will not want to let you or the team down. In addition, it is critical that you treat the entire customer organization with respect and let them know their input to the process is welcomed and necessary. Most programs listen to their senior management and senior customers, but it is essential that you listen to people of all levels. If you make time for the junior members of the team, not only will you get the benefit of their input, but you will help strengthen the team by gaining loyalty and trust from the bottom to the top. Being open with information is also critical to fostering the team concept. Sharing design details and information openly with SETA contractors and government personnel is key to building trust throughout the entire team. Once they know you are honest and open, you can work together to accomplish the program s goals. Lastly, it is imperative that you put the customer first and make sure they know it. That means telling senior management that they can t have a key engineer to support a company proposal because it will hurt the project. When the customer knows they are your top prior-

4 ity no matter what, you distance yourself from all other suppliers and the customer will fight with you to keep your program sold and to deliver a quality product. In the end, the philosophy of customer before company is really in the best interest of the company as well. The customer s loyalty to the team is critical to getting future contracts for your company. This is one of the main reasons the FAAD C2I program has lasted for over 25 years at Northrop Grumman. Customer satisfaction and loyalty will lead to repeat business. One of the most difficult challenges in the defense industry is to create industry partnerships with your competitors. The government is looking for value and industry needs to understand that value is often best achieved when competitors work together. For example, in the latest C- RAM weapon development, the Northrop Grumman C-RAM C2 program is integrating a Raytheon Fire Control and Surveillance radar and a Raytheon Missile system to help counter the 107 MM rocket threat that is being used against US forces in Afghanistan. When Raytheon was first awarded the Advanced, Interim, IFPC, Interceptor (AI3) weapon program in 2012, there was not a lot of trust of Northrop Grumman. Having integrated weapons and sensors from many other industry partners in the past, the Northrop Grumman C-RAM C2 team knew they needed Raytheon to trust them in order for the program to be a success. The key to getting Raytheon to trust Northrop Grumman was by bending over backwards to help make them successful. While it wasn t always in Northrop Grumman s best interest to commit resources to help Raytheon work their own internal problems, we did so any way. At times, Northrop Grumman set aside its own internal milestones and commitments to help Raytheon. Sending engineers to Raytheon facilities, making test tools available, working to their schedules, and responding quickly to their needs was critical to Raytheon getting buy-in that Northrop Grumman was there to make them successful. Ultimately the understanding that all industry partners need to be successful for a large scale integration to be successful is critical. Understanding that if Raytheon fails, the customer fails, and ultimately Northrop Grumman fails is the kind of thinking that that has made C-RAM a success. Adapting in a complex environment has been critical to the success of the C-RAM program. With C-RAM s AI3 program, there is rapid concurrent development going on with the three major subsystems: NG s C-RAM C2 system, Raytheon s AI3 weapon system, and Raytheon s Ku-band Fire Control Radar system. All three subsystems are modifying existing products to meet the customer s need and have to adapt in near real-time to the nuances and evolution of the other subsystems. Northrop Grumman has had to implement multiple algorithms and design approaches to account for the uncertainty of the weapon and radar performance. The different design paths were put under environment variables in the C-RAM C2 software allowing a field integration engineer to execute alternatives if necessary during a field test. Because the software could readily account for differences in expected results with a configuration change,

5 the testing could continue without interruption. This kind of flexibility has resulted in the savings of thousands of hours and has the program to remain on schedule. Ultimately, the reason C-RAM C2 continues to be one of the US Army s most successful programs is because it creates significant value for the customer. Northrop Grumman has developed this program for 25 years and continues to adapt its product to meet emerging requirements and counter new threats. Being able to capitalize on years of investment with a system flexible enough to continue to adapt and evolve has saved the government significant money and time and has provided needed capability to support the warfighter sooner. The following letter was provided to Northrop Grumman by the Government Program Director, Mr Michael Van Rassen: FAAD/C-RAM C2 Team, Thank-you. As many of you are aware, 29 Sep 11, marked the 25 th Anniversary of the original FAAD C2 contract. This is a great milestone that ll of you should be extremely proud of. Starting with the fielding of the 101 st Abn Div in 1993 through the first digitized Corps in the late 1990 s early 200 s to the continued evolution and success in C-RAM, the FAAD C2 team has been front and center. As the Government PM for the last 9 ½ years, I ve gotten to see firsthand the quality of your work. As C-RAM went from a crazy idea to success in the combat zone, I ve gotten to see the existing FAAD C2 workforce take advantage of some great work from those that came before us and see you take it to a higher level. Some of your have been part of the team since the late 80s early 90s and you should be extremely proud. As our nation continues its long fight against its enemies, you can take to heart that your work has helped save soldiers lives. As we move beyond the first 25 years, I know you re all cognizant of the work still left to do as we move to meet the enemies changing tactics. It heartens me to know that we have the FAAD/C-RAM C2 team front and center in this fight. This letter is a testimony to the kind of partnership needed between contractors and the government throughout the entire defense industry.