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MILITARY LOGISTICS FORUM
September 2014 Volume 8, Issue 8
Features
Cover / Q&A
U.S. Air Force Air Logistics Complexes Special Pull-Out Supplement
Exclusive interviews with
7 Brigadier General Donald E. “Gene” Kirkland Commander Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex
Major General H. Brent Baker Sr. Commander Ogden Air Logistics Complex
Horsepower
Brigadier General Walter J. Lindsley Commander Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex
Stronger and more technologically advanced engines are powering the force. By Peter Buxbaum
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As a strategy for providing costeffective weapon systems support, performance-based logistics enable DoD to receive performance outcomes based on specific, predetermined metrics for a product or service. By William Murray
Whether for naval vessels, military aircraft or a myriad of other platforms, systems and components, industry is working with the Department of Defense to take a harder look at life cycle considerations. By Scott Nance
In today’s sustainment world, even government depots must compete with both private firms and each other for each piece of maintenance or modification work. By Henry Canaday
How the U.S. military purchases installation power and its ability to save money in both fixed-installation and deployed environments has come under some renewal through the use of microgrid systems. By William Murray
Challenging PBLs
Life Cycle Efficiencies
Departments
Complementary Talents
Major General Theresa C. Carter
Commander Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (Provisional)
Intelligent Power
Industry Interview
2 Editor’s Perspective 4 Log ops 6 people 14 Supply Chain 26 White paper forum 27 Resource Center
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EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE
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Have PBLs lost their luster? It’s a curious thing how a contracting strategy can become so in vogue for a period of time, then—not so much. Such was the trajectory of performance-based logistics before grinding to a snail’s pace—as budget battles, sequestration and the government’s inability to push the stone in any direction. In fact, the use of PBLs actually declined over the past three years. Earlier this summer, the Department of Defense issued its annual Performance of the Defense Acquisition System report—if you have not read it and you are in contracting and acquisition, you need to! One of Jeff McKaughan the most valuable nuggets to take from the document is that a debate Editor between fixed price and cost type is well-intentioned but somewhat misses the mark. While those contracting vehicles are specifically adept at controlling costs, they also highlight that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. While one contract may have a much lower acquisition price, it may be because there is lower risk involved. Lower risk could mean lower reward or represent better value. Both could be right. Earlier this year, Frank Kendall, under secretary of the defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, testified that, “The data shows that we have not been able to expand the use of PBL for the last two years and that prior to that the use was declining. Declining budgets, as well as the budget uncertainty itself, and therefore contract opportunities, are part of this story, as is the fact the PBL arrangements are harder to structure and enforce than more traditional approaches. Those factors, combined with the imposition of sequestration, furloughs and a government shutdown last year, are likely to have suppressed the increased use of PBL. This area will receive additional management attention going forward; we are going to increase the use of this business approach.” Those that a decade ago favored long-term and comprehensive PBLs are no longer in positions to influence decisions—many having long-since retired. Until the perception gap can be reduced, PBLs are unlikely to gain widespread favor, as they did a decade ago. But optimism springs eternal for a rebirth. With this issue as the backdrop, Military Logistics Forum takes a look at performance-based logistics as a contracting medium, looking for a path forward from PBL’s mid-life crisis.
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LOG OPS F-35 Hangar
Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast announced the first task order from a $240 million indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity multiple award design-build construction contract. Carothers Construction Inc., of Oxford, Miss., was awarded the initial task order for $34.4 million for the design and construction of an aircraft maintenance hangar at Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, S.C. “The new hangar is designed to support and accommodate the F-35’s unique operational and maintenance requirements,” said Troy Ward, MCAS Beaufort Site Activation Task Force program manager. The hangar project is expected to be completed by September 2016. Other work to be performed under this contract includes general building type projects (new construction, renovation, alteration, demolition, and repair work), including industrial, airfield, aircraft hangar, aircraft traffic control, infrastructure, administrative, training, dormitory, and community support facilities. “The existing hangars were designed and built to accommodate legacy aircraft, almost 60 years ago,” said Ward. “They have reached the end of their useful life and renovating or expanding the existing hangars would not be cost effective. We’re building a 21st century facility here to support our new fifthgeneration fighters, the Lightning II.”
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DLA Establishes SOCOM Account Manager Although many U.S. Special Operations Command missions may be covert, the Defense Logistics Agency has been front and center in its support of the organization by establishing a new national account manager (NAM) to best support SOCOM’s needs. Kevin Kachinski, a former DLA executive officer, was selected as the NAM for the command under DLA Logistics Operations in late July. “About a year ago, this was just an idea, a discussion, of where DLA can better support the Department of Defense,” Kachinski said. “We [already] have support teams for each of the four military services, and one for federal agencies and international programs. This is an extension of that as the next iteration of our customerfacing focus.” With the majority of DoD components rightsizing and getting smaller in recent years, SOCOM is one arm of the department that is actually growing slightly, Kachinski said. “It was a natural growth area for DLA to help synchronize and optimize SOCOM’s logistics requirements with DLA’s capabilities,” he said. “DLA has a lot to offer. It’s important for us to be able to market that to special operations and for them to determine where DLA fits in their business lines. Right now, they are independently doing DLA-type work for their forces. Now, they can reach into the [agency’s logistics] powerhouse to figure out what parts they think will complement and add value to their missions. And we get to make that part of our standard mission set.” By Amanda Neumann, DLA public affairs.
Army Contracting Command Activates New Battalion In late July, the Army Contracting Command activated a new battalion during at a ceremony at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Mich. “Today is a great day for the Army Contracting Command and also for the 923rd Contingency Contracting Battalion,” said Major General Ted Harrison, ACC commanding general, who officiated the ceremony. Along with the activation of the 923rd came the assumption of its command by Lieutenant Colonel John M. Cooper. Harrison passed the colors to ACC-Warren’s acting executive director, Ken Bousquet, who then passed the colors to Cooper. Cooper comes to the 923rd after serving as Headquarters, Department of the Army, organization integrator for acquisition, logistics and technology operating force organizations. As commander of the 923rd, Cooper will be responsible for four contingency contracting teams (CCT): the 628th CCT, the 671st CCT, the 739th CCT and the 740th CCT. Cooper said that the battalion’s number one priority is to deliver the best contract support possible to soldiers globally and
4 | MLF 8.8
to be prepared to conduct its mission in a wide range of physical, social, political and economic environments. “Though small in the context of our greater Army, today’s activation is a great step toward assuring our preparedness to support future operations,” said Cooper. “Today’s activation will improve our Army’s overall readiness and, of even more importance, our ability to support our nation’s sons and daughters in harm’s way.” By Catherine Liedke
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60 Big Ones In 1954, the song “Rock Around the Clock” was playing on the radio, Oprah Winfrey was born and the first issue of Sports Illustrated appeared on newsstands. That same year, on August 23, the YC-130 Hercules made its maiden flight at the Lockheed Martin plant in Burbank, Calif. and the C-130 is still in production today, making it the longest-running military aircraft production line in history. The need for the C-130 came from Air Force’s Tactical Air Command in 1951, after the Korean War, to fill a void for mediumcargo tactical transport. “In its first six decades, the C-130 shaped aviation history, redefined industry standards
Privately Owned Vehicle Shipping Contract Concerns Transportation experts from U.S. Transportation Command and Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command formed a fusion team in early August to more quickly evaluate and address critical issues affecting the U.S. military’s privately owned vehicle shipping program. On May 1, International Auto Logistics (IAL) assumed responsibility for the Global Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Contract. Under the terms of the contract, IAL is responsible for processing, transporting and storing vehicles owned by military personnel and Department of Defense civilian employees bound for or returning from overseas duty locations. The newly-formed POV fusion team is a combination of subject matter experts who are familiar with the contract requirements and supply chain experts who can assess the system and drive improvements. U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Paul H. Guemmer leads the team. “We are working very closely with IAL, and we have put together a team to research the issues and gain an understanding of how IAL intends to make the process more efficient and transparent,” said Guemmer. “Our group’s responsibility is to examine IAL’s supply chain processes and provide contract oversight of the company’s ability to meet the requirements for our military customers. We’re not here to do IAL’s job. We’re here to look after the best interest of our military customers by highlighting issues that IAL needs to resolve.” By Mark Diamond, SDDC public affairs. 6 | MLF 8.8
and exhibited flexibility that other aircraft have yet to match,” said George Shultz, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager, C-130 Programs, in a Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company press release. “The C-130 remains the world’s most proven airlifter because of its ability to adapt, remain relevant and deliver results no matter the mission.” The C-130 is the most modified aircraft in the Air Force, with multiple variants and hundreds of configurations, according to the AMC Historian Office. The C-130 is used for airlift, aeromedical missions, personnel and cargo airdrop, natural disaster relief missions, Antarctic resupply to the National Science
Foundation, weather reconnaissance, aerial spray missions and firefighting duties for the U.S. Forest Service. The C-130 can airlift 92 ground troops, 64 fully-equipped paratroopers, 74 litter patients or 45,000 pounds of cargo. The C-130J, which is the latest version of the venerable platform, was introduced in February 1999. By Staff Sergeant Amber R. Kelly-Herard
LCS Maintenance and Modernization Contract The U.S. Navy awarded General Dynamics Bath Iron Works a $100 million contract to provide planning yard services for the littoral combat ship (LCS) program. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works is a business unit of General Dynamics. As the LCS Planning Yard, Bath Iron Works will provide maintenance and modernization support for all Navy LCS 1 and LCS 2 variant ships. Work to be performed under this contract includes availability advanced planning, ship alteration design and logistics support, material support, ship planned
maintenance, class services, onboard maintenance and planning of all maintenance availabilities in the United States and abroad. “We are pleased for the opportunity to apply our planning yard experience in support of the Navy’s LCS program,” said Bath Iron Works President Fred Harris. “We have been working hard to make every aspect of our business more affordable, enabling us to successfully compete for contracts like this. This award is a result of that work and we look forward to working with our industry partners to meet the needs of our U.S. Navy customer.”
PEOPLE Navy Rear Admiral Dixon R. Smith has been nominated for appointment to the rank of vice admiral and for assignment as commander, Navy Installations Command, Washington Navy Yard, D.C. Smith is currently serving as commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Va.
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Captain Keith M. Jones, selected for the rank of rear admiral (lower half), will be assigned as reserve director, Logistics Programs and Business Operations, Chief of Naval Operations, N41, Washington, D.C. Jones previously served as commanding officer, Logistics Readiness Center,
Headquarters 120, U.S. Pacific Fleet, San Diego, Calif. Roxanne Banks, director of the Small Business Administration’s Denver Finance Center, will be the new deputy director of Defense Logistics Agency Acquisition.
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Stronger and more technologically advanced engines are powering the force.
By Peter Buxbaum, MLF Correspondent
account aircraft operating conditions when determining the mainteThe United States military and its industry partners are charged nance required, as has been the case in the commercial arena for some with maintaining and overhauling a wide range of engines installed time. The military has recently begun to access the on aircraft and ground vehicles. The costs associated with these operaserviceable materials market, which offers rebuilt and remanufactions put a strain on defense budgets and an effort has been underway tured parts as replacements. Commerical operators have been using to reduce maintenance costs and enhance the longevity of engines. it for some time. Since many military aircraft are commercial aircraft Advances in engine maintenance actually begin with engine derivatives, there are big opportunities for costs savings in that area.” design. Today’s engines are increasingly modular, allowing maintainThe partnership between the Anniston Army Depot and Honeyers to repair or replace individual modules when they go bad without well exemplifies the benefits of maintenance partnerships. Anniston’s having to deal with the entire system (see sidebar). skilled government labor puts in millions of hours per year maintainBest practices have emerged that are applicable to many, if not ing and overhauling Honeywell’s AGT 1500 engine on the M1 Abrams all, military engines. Foremost is to follow the lead of commercial and the T55 engine on the Chinook. operators. These companies lead the military in this area, and their “Much of our equipment has close ties to the commaintenance practices are often applicable to the milimercial market,” said Tom Hart, lead for technical sales tary sphere. Many partnerships have evolved between at Honeywell Defense and Space. “Our philosophy of military and commercial entities through which comengine maintenance is to take commercial best pracmercial maintenance practices are applied to the militices and apply them to the military.” tary environment. “They are the supply chain manager,” said Chris Among the commercial best practices adopted by Williams, chief of Anniston’s turbine drive train the military is performing condition-based maintedivision. “They manage all the unit parts and pronance. That means being proactive in averting unexvide some engineering support. Government employpected maintenance events, rather than hauling an ees test the parts and disassemble and reassemble the engine into a depot after it is already far gone. The engines.” collection and analysis of engine sensor data provide Andy Foote In 2005, Honeywell initiated the Total Inteclues about when an engine should be proactively Grated Engine Revitalization (TIGER) program for maintained. the AGT1500 engine, providing improved readiness Tailoring the scope of maintenance work to a and reduced operating and support costs. Honeywell’s particular engine, instead of following standard proceFact-Based Maintenance (FBM) data collection system dures for all engines, also has the effect of streamlining accesses an engine-mounted memory unit to collect maintenance processes. Innovative facilities layouts, engine performance data, enabling identification of investments in precision machining equipment, and opportunities for future engine improvements. the reclamation of used parts all serve to reduce main“The FBM records how long an engine has run tenance costs while extending the useful life of the and at what temperatures and conditions,” said Hart. engine and its parts. “With that information we are able to tailor the work “We are seeing a shift from reactive maintenance scope for a specific engine instead of doing a general to a philosophy of condition-based maintenance,” said Amy Gowder overhaul. TIGER has doubled the historical durability Andy Foote, an engineer at Alion Science & Technolof the engine over the past eight years.” ogy. “Every vehicle today has some sort of sensor network in it. The “Not all engines that come back to the depot require a complete ability to pull diagnostic information out of the engine helps maintainoverhaul,” said Williams. “We make the necessary repairs at much ers do their jobs better.” Alion has worked on technical prognostics lower costs than a complete overhaul.” monitors for Air Force airborne platforms and for Marine Corps Lockheed Martin operates two aircraft maintenance facilities in ground vehicles. San Antonio and Montreal. “San Antonio was traditionally a military “Military practices lag behind commercial practices,” said Amy site and Montreal was a commercial facility,” said Gowder. “Now we Gowder, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin operate as a blended model. We have recently applied the tailoring Commercial Engine Solutions. “The military has begun to take into www.MLF-kmi.com
MLF 8.8 | 7
of work scopes, a best practice we got out of the Montreal shop, to military aircraft. The environment the engine has been working in, whether it is cold or in the desert, effects wear and tear on engines. We [have been] finding lots of savings by doing more customized work scopes in the commercial world for quite a while and this represents an opportunity to the military as well.” Among the military engines Lockheed Martin services are the F110 on the F-15 and F-16, the F118 on the U-2, and the T56 on the C-130 and the P-3. Pratt & Whitney, a manufacturer of a wide variety of aircraft engines, plays different maintenance roles depending on the requirements of individual programs. “We are involved in sustaining engineering across the waterfront,” said Mark Buongiorno, a business development director. “We work with the armed services to understand reliability and maintainability practices. We monitor flight safety field work and performance with them to maintain airworthiness across the board.” The company is also heavily involved in supply chain manage- The data collected from embedded sensors is increasingly being used for diagnostics and prognostics. [Photo courtesy of Oshkosh Defense] ment. “We do everything from filling orders for spare parts to forecastmanage the fleet, especially with PBL programs,” said Buongiorno. ing to produce guaranteed material maintainability,” said Buongiorno. “PBLs include incentives to reduce maintenance costs. Combining “At the highest level we guarantee engine availability. We coordinate diagnostics with an understanding of how to effect outcomes yields the all maintenance on engines and make sure always there are spares ability to do proactive maintenance.” available when they are needed. We enter into agreements with miliIn one case, Pratt & Whitney designed an upgrade for an engine tary organizations that capitalize on their strengths and ours to procomponent that was responsible for a good deal of vide the best support possible at the lowest cost.” Pratt maintenance costs. The component was replaced & Whitney has a partnership with the depot at Tinker when the aircraft came in for other work. “In that Air Force Base in Oklahoma for maintaining the F117 way,” said Buongiorno, “we were able to reduce engine, which powers the C-17, and the F119 engine, unscheduled future maintenance and aircraft down which powers the F-22 Raptor. time.” Performance-based logistics (PBLs), long-term The gap between collecting engine data and the logistics support contracts based on incentives to ultimate maintenance decisions deriving from that achieve specific performance goals, “have been gamedata comes from software of the kind designed by Alion changers in terms of readiness and the reduction of Science & Technology. “At some point, a decision has maintenance costs for the fleet,” said Andy Morganto be made based on the trending analysis when to perthaler, a senior marketing manager at GE Aviation. Mark Buongiorno form maintenance,” said Foote. Alion has developed a “PBLs for maintaining F414 and F404 engines have Web-based software tool that summarizes engine data been in existence for over 10 years and have proven to provide decision support. themselves out by dramatically improving readiness Advanced information tools are also being used to and lowering costs.” The PBLs in question are agreeplan for the obsolescence of engine parts and compoments between GE Aviation and the Navy’s Fleet Readinents. Obsolescence occurs when a manufacturer goes ness Center Southeast in Jacksonville, Fla., and cover out of business or is no longer manufacturing or supdepot management and parts availability. porting a particular product. “The programs have been recognized as contributBAE Systems developed a Web tool called Advanced ing to cost avoidance of $110.2 million,” said MorganComponent Obsolescence Management (AVCOM) in thaler. “Material availability has been above 95 percent. the 1990s that forecasts when a part will become obsoThe service life of the hot sections of F414 engines has lete. AVCOM accomplishes this task with its access to been tripled from 2,000 hours to 6,000 hours.” Andy Morganthaler an obsolescence management database including over Truck engines are now routinely equipped with 100 million parts. networks of sensors. “The data collected from these “Users get notifications about when specific parts [sensors] is increasingly being used for diagnostics and are going to become obsolete,” said Roger Ogilvie, vice prognostics,” said Mike Ivy, vice president for global president and general manager for mission support integrated product support at Oshkosh Defense. “The at BAE Systems. “AVCOM takes the surprise out of military is becoming more savvy in this area and is tapobsolescence management and enables our customers ping into this data more and more.” Oshkosh Defense to make smarter decisions, whether that is to stock up produces a range of wheeled tactical vehicles for the on a part or to look for alternatives.” U.S. Army, including the heavy expanded mobility tactiIn 2012, BAE Systems added an Integrated Logiscal truck, heavy equipment transporter and the family tics Support Management System (ILSMS) to AVCOM. of medium tactical vehicles. ILSMS provides suggested solutions to obsolescence “Data collected from operational engines and Mike Ivy problems. “All this improves the availability of fleets,” through the maintenance process helps to proactively 8 | MLF 8.8
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Smart Engines “Navy aircraft engines are modular these days,” said Donald Dunlap, fleet readiness director at the Fleet Readiness Center Southeast in Jacksonville, Fla. “This contributes to the ease of maintenance and lowers maintenance costs.” “All of our engines have some degree of modularity,” said Andy Morganthaler, a senior marketing manager at GE Aviation. “That means that subcomponents in the engine can be easily replaced in the field instead of having to send back the entire engine to the depot to be repaired. This reduces transportation and storage costs
over the life of a program.” GE Aviation makes the T700 engine on the Black Hawk and Apache helicopters; the F414 and F404, which power the F-18 and enhanced F-18; and the F110, which is installed on F-15 and F-16 fighters. Ground vehicles are also being designed for ease of maintenance. “One of the simplest and best things we can do is provide maintainers easy access to the engine,” said Mike Ivy, vice president for global integrated product support at Oshkosh Defense. “When you start hanging many components on an engine like large
alternators, the engine can get buried. Easy access to the engine facilitates preventative maintenance checks and reduces life cycle costs.” Technology is playing a big role in the quest to reduce maintenance and increase performance, according to Dunlap. “The biggest change we have seen in recent years is the deployment of full authority digital engine controls,” he said. “FADECs receive feedback within milliseconds and adjust engine processes to keep them as efficient as possible. Engines that think for themselves—that is the direction we are headed.”
nization,” said Gonzales. “For that reason we have been able to reduce said Ogilvie. AVCOM and ILSMS have been used by Navy and Air Force the amount of water consumed by 99 percent and have also seen a jet engine maintenance programs. huge reduction in chemical usage.” The facility uses a closed loop The recent and ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have for water and chemicals that routes the fluids to treatment facilities. been challenging to the operation of Pratt & Whitney’s turbine Precision machining of parts is one activity that Anniston Army engines, noted Buongiorno, which led the company to investigate Depot excels in. This has the effect of being able to analytic and modeling tools and technologies that reclaim used parts and install them flawlessly in overwould increase engine time on wing. “We adapted hauled engines. technologies being developed for the joint strike “One thing that makes a depot a depot is the fighter,” he said, “and applied them to our current reclamation process,” said Doug Turner, a supervisor engines. We believe we can extend the life of the F110 at Anniston’s reciprocating engine disassembly area. engine by nearly 50 percent and eliminate one in three “Instead of putting in all new parts, which would cost depot overhauls through new developments in modelmore, we reclaim them and bring them back to likeing and analysis of data. That translates to close to a new condition. We are often able to repair cracks in 30 percent reduction in maintenance costs over the shafts or housings instead of buying a brand new one.” engine’s life cycle, which is a significant benefit to our The Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center Southeast in customers.” Dan Gonzales Jacksonville, Fla. does precision machining during Honeywell’s Health and Usage Monitoring System the process of overhauling F404 and F414 engines (HUMS) has been installed on Apache, Kiowa and Chifrom the Navy’s F18 Hornet and Super Hornets and nook helicopters and has since also been adapted to the TF34 engine from the Air Force’s A-10 Warthog, fixed-wing aircraft. “The technology monitors engine among others. “We can machine parts to the fourth vibrations,” said Hart. “We are able to recognize probdecimal point,” said Donald Dunlap, the director of lems by detecting vibration anomalie signals.” fleet readiness. “This is key to keeping time on wing Honeywell has recently integrated HUMS with and helping performance.” satellite communications. “Now HUMS can transmit Lockheed Martin has also invested in high-speed information on exigencies the aircraft might be experigrinders that use software to provide tight matching encing while the aircraft is in service, and maintainers among engine components. “You get more power of can get information on aircraft issues before it lands,” the engine with that kind of accuracy,” said Gowder. said Hart. The STACOM system is available in the comDonald Dunlap That the Department of Defense is seeking to mercial marketplace but not yet for military systems. reduce overall program costs by shrinking life cycle costs has become StandardAero, a company that performs maintenance on a varievident in the Army’s ongoing development of a joint light tactiety of military engines for the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, has cal vehicle, the eventual replacement for the HMMWV. “The Army designed its facility to increase the efficiency and reduce the costs of made life cycle costs part of the evaluation criteria,” said Ivy. “That maintenance processes. “Our facility in San Antonio is unique,” said is something we have not seen before. Our defense customer is Dan Gonzales, the company’s vice president for business developbecoming more aware of life cycle costs as a very large component ment, “because it is aligned in a cellular concept. Traditional facilities of overall program costs and is evaluating these costs carefully at the segregate their shops, such as paint shops and welding shops, by front end.” O function. We keep the aircraft in one location and route equipment and parts to where they are needed. This significantly reduces engine overhaul time.” The StandardAero facility was also designed to eliminate the For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories discharge of chemicals and water. “Every ounce of fuel is captured, at www.mlf-kmi.com. measured and disposed of through a third-party environmental orgawww.MLF-kmi.com
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Challenging PBLs Performance-based logistics hits a mid-life crisis. By William Murray, MLF Correspondent
As a strategy for providing cost-effective aircraft and weapon systems support, performance-based logistics (PBL) enables Department of Defense agencies to receive performance outcomes based on specific, pre-determined metrics for a product or service. Officials from three publicly-traded defense contractors argued that short-term contracts can impede the innovation and cost-saving potential of PBL. They also said that defining the parameters in a PBL that impact a military organization’s mission and ensuring that these are fully within the control of the PBL provider are key to implementing an effective PBL. Another challenge to PBLs, according to vendors, is that their key champions tend not to be military service officials, but rather officials at organizations such as the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and the Pentagon. Therefore, those who champion PBLs and write logistics procurement policy favoring it lack some necessary clout in enforcing policy. During the last several years, Dale Winstead, SAIC’s general manager of logistics and supply chain in San Diego, said that he’s seen a decreased use of PBL in DoD. But rumors of the death of PBLs are just rumors. His company has many performance-based contracts with the DLA, including a number with incentives and disincentives. At the three-day National Defense Industry Association (NDIA) National Logistics Forum in April, Winstead heard numerous government officials—including Frank Kendall, deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, who has served in his position since May 2012—reaffirm their commitment to PBLs in Washington. “We were happy to hear this and Dale Winstead as a participant in this industry, we embrace PBLs and desire contractual relationships with our military customers to be fashioned on PBL terms,” Winstead said. A former nuclear submarine officer who served on active duty for 10 years at the end of the Cold War, he has worked at SAIC for 24 years. “The big advantages to PBLs are using commercial practices to maintain and support aircraft,” said Pam Carter, vice president of business development for Boeing Global Services and Support in St. Louis, Mo. “There’s an economy of scale to be achieved through PBLs, and industry can provide the services more efficiently. You get more for less.” Benjamin Ertel, lead associate with Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Va., agreed that PBLs can optimize the availability of weapons systems to meet military requirements. He sees the same principle long-used in information technology, with service-level agreements offered by systems integrators in exchange for a cost per seat or perhaps a software licensing fee. Dean Barnes, a director in General Dynamics Information Technology’s Intelligence Solutions Division, said his company is starting 10 | MLF 8.8
to see PBL carry over into their areas. “The IT industry is a good example,” he said. “Network up times, down times, mean time to repair, mean time between operational mission failures are all examples of performance metrics that can be applied to almost any maintenance/ logistical area.” “While no one metric may be more important than another, when compiled they all become meaningful and measureable indicators that allow for better business and operational decisions,” Barnes said. It appears that in the early 2000s, when PBLs first grew in popularity in the U.S. military according to Ertel, government managers did not think clearly through the roles and responsibilities of vendors as opposed to those of the government, wholeheartedly handing over total systems support functions to major original equipment manufacturers and systems integrators. “Now, the government is thinking it through more strategically and coming up with tailor-made performance metrics,” Ertel said. “There is a lot of hard thinking-through of roles and responsibilities,” he said. Ertel finds this development very encouraging. “PBLs require solid, collaborative relationships between system owner and support provider. There is no room for an us and them relationship. For PBLs to be truly successful, there must only be one team,” Barnes said. During the last five to six years, Ertel has seen an increased use of public-private partnerships in performance-based contracting by the government; this increase makes sense, since PBL is designed to cultivate the best features of an organic government workforce and the outsourced services provided by vendors. “The government is finding Pam Carter there are some inherent government responsibilities” with performancebased contracting, Ertel said. He has worked at Booz Allen Hamilton since 2000 and focuses his work on Army C4ISR and logistics. There are more advantages to PBLs, according Winstead. “The customer defines what is truly important to their mission, and the provider, whether organic or integrated, is free to bring to bear the best of their Benjamin Ertel skills, technologies and know-how to achieve that performance. “In the case of PBLs, that means that warfighters’ weapons and support systems are available more and operate more reliably,” Winstead continued. Since the service provider is free to choose the best approach to meet the customer’s goals by gaining efficiencies, it is possible for a contract provider to achieve greater profitability www.MLF-kmi.com
through PBL and for the organic provider to save money, according to Winstead. “To quote General George S. Patton, ‘Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what needs to be done, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity,’” Barnes said. He thinks the military benefits greatly from PBLs through improved support performance through competition and innovation. “Under a PBL, the system owner specifies the goals and or desired outcomes, and the product support provider is measured according to how well it succeeds in delivering those outcomes,” Barnes said. “PBLs give the military a means to get greater performance at a lower cost. This is especially true on systems that have significant history, processes, and procedures where much of the cost is known. For contracted support, the combination of firm fixed price and PBL can be very beneficial for both industry and the military,” he said. “Additionally, PBLs often result in reduced acquisition time and oversight because the military is buying an outcome versus a specific service.” A retired Air Force colonel who served on active duty for 26 years, Carter has worked at Boeing for 10 years. She worked in aircraft maintenance and achieved a Level 4 logistics certification. Her company tends to provide PBLs for its aircraft and any platforms it has manufactured. “We give a lifestyle sustainment view from the (start of manufacturing) to the graveyard,” Carter said.
Turf Battles in DoD Supply Depots One pitfall of PBLs is that military leaders “largely want to keep what they regard as theirs,” Carter said. Some military leaders tend to be protective of the workforce in a supply depot and the established workflow, regardless of any overarching Department of Defense policy favoring PBLs. “The champions (of PBLs) are usually not from the services,” Carter said. “They can write policy but not enforce it.” This reality limits the effectiveness of the policy. PBLs received an initial prominent mention in the Quadrennial Defense Review of 2001 in response to increased costs in maintaining weapons systems and reduced readiness and operational reliability. Well-established instruments or parameters that commercial providers get evaluated on in PBL contracts include the rate of availability of products, order fulfillment or fill rates, logistics response times, and mean time between failures. “They don’t tell you how to do it: that’s the beauty of PBLs,” Carter said. “PBLs give contractors more latitude in how best to accomplish a target,” Ertel agreed. “More fees or profit is possible if they hit the target,” which appeals to a company’s profit motive, he said. “Companies can innovate, and they’re not locked into a government process” to achieve the goals, Ertel said. “Once there are constraints that you have to think about, it makes achieving the goal efficiently more difficult,” he said. “(Vendors) need to have the control necessary to deliver on the performance metrics” for PBLs to work well, Ertel said. He argued that configuration changes to equipment in a PBL are necessary for success.
military leaders will decide to do all work through the depot’s workforce, as opposed to considering a vendor for outsourcing. PBLs are ideally long-term arrangements at least five years in duration, although the optimal duration is 10 years, according to Winstead, since such contracts give the commercial provider sufficient incentive to invest in efficiencies that will eventually provide a payback. Such efforts to invest in efficiencies encourage innovation, which tends to benefit follow-on efforts and other platforms, according to Winstead. “For example, an unreliable part on a platform is a sustainment cost driver,” Winstead said. He stated that with a long enough contractual period, a PBL provider might invest in designing a better part which would be more reliable and therefore save in sustainment costs. “The military benefits from a more reliable, cost-effective design. “Recently, our military customers have shied away from longterm contracts,” Winstead said, but he noted at the April NDIA forum that he heard that there may be more willingness from DoD organizations to explore long-term PBL contracts. Winstead surmised that part of the reason why PBLs have fallen out of favor in some military organizations is that some PBL parameters are being specified under contract that are not completely within the control of the PBL provider. Such scenarios can result in distractions from the contractual performance or contractual disputes, according to Winstead. “I see PBLs growing but taking a different role,” Ertel said. Rather than taking on large tasks, he sees service providers taking on very specific, specialized roles, such as high-level systems analytics for weapons systems component availability. “I don’t see as many largescale, pay-by-the-hour PBLs,” Ertel said. Carter pointed out that foreign militaries appear more willing to sign long-term PBL agreements, which enables them to realize more advantages. It is unclear if the Federal Acquisition Regulation would allow long-term contracts of 10 years or greater because of the going need to foster competition and get the best rates for government agencies. It appears that some military leaders are building upon earlier experience with performance-based contracts, which is encouraging to one vendor. “The guidelines provided in the PBL Guidebook issued by the Department of Defense last May match our experience,” Winstead said. “It is a powerful reference for the military and their contractors to properly implement performance-based logistics.” “Risk is a big factor for the contractor in a (firm fixed price/ performance-based acquisition) environment,” Barnes said. “However, when a strong collaborative relationship between the (systems owner) and product support provider exists, the risk will be lowered for both parties. Because PBLs are based on performance data, it is important that the data collected is meaningful and measurable and that the military and provider are able to act on it. Providers can only be as good as the information they have,” including equipment failure rates, delay areas, and equipment sparing, “Additionally, there is a need for end-to-end visibility into the logistics and maintenance cycle for the program. For those not accustomed to operating in a PBL environment, start-up costs can be a factor. O
Changes Afoot with PBLs As a result of U.S. troop drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq, to Carter it is evident that “(PBLs are) going to change, but might change for the better.” It’s possible in some DoD supply depots that www.MLF-kmi.com
For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mlf-kmi.com.
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Life Cycle Efficiencies Squeezing the most out of every investment. By Scott Nance MLF Correspondent
subsystems, avionics, weapons, the rest of Whether for naval vessels, military airit. What AVCOM does is take each of those craft or a myriad of other platforms, systems subsystems, break them down to individual and components, industry is working with boxes, individual cards, and then individual the Department of Defense to take a harder components. What you’re doing is then loadlook at life cycle considerations in their coning that information into this tool. What the tracts and building those same efficiencies tool’s providing you is look-ahead informainto legacy systems. tion on obsolescence of any of those compo“Things are lasting longer, right?” asked nents, either down to the component level, Roger Ogilvie, vice president and general the board level or the box level. manager of mission support at contractor “What the Air Force likes about it is it’s BAE Systems. “So life cycle tails are getting completely automated—it’s a single database longer than they have ever expected to be. across all of their assets as far as aircraft We are seeing customers that are suddenly [goes]. For every system you add to it, it taking a lot more interest in sustainment of benefits all of the other systems that could products, and the cost that’s associated with potentially use that part or that component. that.” … In the past, the Air Force tracked all that However, improving life cycle perforstuff manually. Prior to our tool coming in, mance has taken on a different look at differthis [tracking] was always a manual effort on ent companies, which often employ varying their part.” approaches to reach that goal. The Air Force tracks metrics related to One key method at BAE Systems, for the use of AVCOM versus manual effort, and instance, has involved deploying a software during this year to-date, AVCOM has saved tool known as AVCOM—Advanced Compoalmost 1.5 million man-hours in obsolesnent Obsolescence Management. cence management, Ogilvie said. “It’s an evolving software tool that we “The larger benefit to the began supporting the Air product is really what it proForce [with] in 1991. We vides you for increased time support a majority of their in making decisions,” he said. weapon systems—primarily “I can see further down the aircraft. In addition to the road if I’m managing these Air Force, it’s also grown into [systems]. Anything that’s a being used by the Army. It’s surprise always costs more also used internally within money in the life cycle chain BAE, and most recently on for any product. With this a large contract we had suptool, you get advanced warnporting the ICBM missile susMike Ivy ing far in advance of anything tainment for the Air Force,” else you could do and you eliminate those Ogilvie said. surprises.” AVCOM provides a large database which supports many different components and subsystems, he explained. Analysis and Data “If you think about a fighter aircraft, it’s wrapped in a metal skin. But within Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense has that skin, you’ve got several subassemblies, been implementing life cycle analysis and 12 | MLF 8.8
building in efficiencies in a number of its contracts with the Pentagon, including the P-19R aircraft rescue fire fighting vehicle, M-ATV family of vehicles, and the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) programs, according to Mike Ivy, the company’s vice president, global integrated product support. “P-19 is a new program where we are contracted to perform a full life cycle analysis. M-ATV is a legacy program where we had the opportunity to perform a full life cycle analysis and refine their support plan and improve the companion data,” he said. “As part of the life cycle analysis, a level of repair analysis is performed to examine different types of support solutions leveraging existing product and logistics data. A dashboard is created to display this information and used as an interactive tool to determine the most cost-effective and feasible support solution.” Oshkosh is executing life cycle analysis on P-19 and M-ATV, and has completed the analysis on an FMTV contract, Ivy said. “We are able to work hand in hand with the government and use factual data to make decisions that create consistency to the vehicle platform’s maintenance philosophy,” he said. “Based on factual analysis, service assemblies and kits are identified and introduced into the government’s procurement system to assist in executing the support plans that are aligned to that developed maintenance philosophy. This equates to a smaller, more meaningful maintenance manual for the users. “Our data is robust and substantiated, which allows both Oshkosh and the government to simulate different levels of maintenance and support options while being aware of the life cycle cost impact,” he added. That legacy systems were developed under a prior methodology which was specific to a program’s maintenance philosophy www.MLF-kmi.com
depending on mission packages and other factors, O’Brien said. “That’s a little bit different than a 200 or 250[-person] crew of a frigate. Going in, we knew that we would have to help the Navy reduce manning by design. What do I mean by that? Obviously, automation plays a big piece of it. Your firefighting systems, things that people do that they may not have to do—we could have other systems do [these Reducing Staff and Fuel things] automatically,” he said. Consumption With its vendors, Austal looks for ways to design in automation or design out some For Mobile, Ala.-based shipbuilder Austal duplicative systems and over-redundancy on USA, building life cycle efficiencies with the the ships, O’Brien said. U.S. Navy often involves a financial balanc“If you took a Spruance-class destroyer, ing act, according to Terry O’Brien, the for instance, which underwent several company’s vice president of business develupgrades during its 30-year life, the manning opment and external affairs. on the ship changed. As they added more sys“When you talk about life cycle for the tems and other things, you obviously needed Navy program manager, particularly, the more operators—and equally as important, Navy has to balance the acquisition cost in more maintainers. That has to the present with future savbe managed through the life of ings. … I think that is at the the ship as well,” he said. “The core of the argument for the builder, at the front end, tries service, and they need to be to make the seaframe—and able to balance that,” he said. all of the systems—as efficient “If they run low on as possible from a manpower maintenance funding, ships perspective because we realize are not maintained at the that is the Navy’s biggest cost. rate that they were designed “…Then throughout the [to be], so that can start raislife cycle of the ship as it’s ing maintenance costs. That Terry O’Brien upgraded, as people make decithrows another factor into sions, that factors in: Is this the equation,” he added. going to add more crew to the Austal focuses on conship? Will this take crew off? trolling the top two factors Will it remain the same?” he that drive the life cycle cost added. “As you upgrade and get of a ship: personnel salaries further in the 25- or 30-year and fuel costs, O’Brien said. service life of a ship, are there “From the builder’s perthings you can do during spective, up front, we try to maintenance cycles to come in go in there with that underand maybe reduce manning? standing, and—if we’re Because if you take a couple, building a new design—[the Lee Logan three, four, five people off per knowledge of] how we can ship, it can be impactful in a positive way to factor in to do more with fewer people,” he reduce your manpower cost.” said. “And, then, obviously, fuel efficiency. The other key goal for Austal is to reduce Can we provide a power plant and a ship fuel consumption. that runs much more efficiently than ones “For Austal, particularly, the JHSV and that have in the past because we understand the LCS are lightweight compared to a steel those two are the [cost] drivers?” platform, so they are more fuel-efficient,” Austal USA is building both the joint O’Brien said. “So any ship that can be made high-speed vessel (JHSV) and one of the more fuel-efficient—either from the initial variants of the littoral combat ship (LCS) for design or through the life of the ship through the U.S. Navy. various upgrades or technology insertions, Intended as a transport platform in colif you can come in and reduce the fuel conlaboration with the U.S. Army, the JHSV has sumption on the ship—those have immedia crew of 25, while the LCS class of surface ate savings.” combatants has a crew between 60 to 90, is a top challenge to helping the DoD look at life cycle considerations and build the same efficiencies into them, Ivy said. “As the standards in the tactical wheeled vehicle industry mature, it requires breaking historical maintenance philosophy ties to align all programs under the industry standard,” he said.
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Maintaining Aircraft More Like Commercial Customers At Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace, the goal of improving life cycle performance means helping the U.S. military maintain “their airplanes, more and more, in the way that our commercial customers maintain their airplanes,” said Lee Logan, the company’s government programs strategies manager. “We have established an enormous infrastructure to assist them in doing that,” he said. “We began to focus, two decades ago or so, on not only perfecting the aircraft but perfecting the delivery of product support, which is our term for service on the aircraft after” initial delivery. For instance, Gulfstream Aerospace operates more than 20 maintenance sites around the world, Logan said. “We have the single-largest dedicated business jet service center in the world,” he said. “We have a parts-delivery system that’s second to none. We have technicians that actually fly on our own airplanes to where you need them. We bring parts to where you need them. We bring them in our own airplane if we can’t get them to you any other way, on your schedule.” Gulfstream Aerospace is working to get the U.S. military to begin to embrace some of that—along with using the company’s business jets themselves “whenever the airplane design and its performance happens to fit their mission,” Logan said. “We don’t build F-16s or F-15s or F-22s, but occasionally, an aircraft with the kind of performance of the Gulfstream or any other typical business jet becomes a very good choice as a commercial, off-the-shelf aircraft,” he said. That includes, for instance, what Logan called the “VIP fleet,” which flies out of Joint Base Andrews near Washington, D.C. and other locations. The company makes some minor modifications to enhance onboard communications, “but otherwise, if you walked into one, it would look very much like one of our commercial aircraft,” he said. Those planes ferry senior administration officials, top military staff and members of Congress on their official travel, he said. O
For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mlf-kmi.com.
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SUPPLY CHAIN
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Military-Commercial Partnership Anniversary Boeing and Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) are celebrating 10 years of partnering on the repair and overhaul of U.S. Army AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The public-private partnership ensures aircraft readiness and availability by supporting the overhaul of complex parts such as transmissions and gear boxes serviced at the depot. “Our relationship with CCAD is a true partnership where we share best practices that create significant improvements in cost, repair turnaround time and surplus inventory,” said Tim Sassenrath, vice president and program manager for Boeing Rotorcraft Support. “We bring the breadth of Boeing’s resources to ensure the partnership meets the customer’s needs,
and we look forward to continuing our successful legacy of supporting the warfighter.” The partnership, begun in 2004, capitalizes on Boeing’s expertise in logistics, engineering and material management. During the past 10 years, surplus inventory has decreased from $90 million to less than $30 million and throughput at the depot has improved by 50 percent. “Being on-site with our customer provides Boeing the agility and flexibility to adjust to emerging requirements from supporting routine maintenance to the unscheduled repairs of battle-damaged aircraft,” said Lisa Stuart, program manager and Boeing site lead at CCAD. “We both benefit from the partnership.
Military Modular Weapons and Ammunition Storage Traditionally, U.S. military bases have relied on costly permanent bunkers or “stick-built” structures to securely store weapons and ammunition. But most of these are WWII-era bunkers and were not constructed to fit today’s equipment and weaponry. “War in the last 12 years has brought a new line of equipment, but facilities built in the 1950s and 1960s—and that’s the norm in many states—can’t support it,” said retired Major General Gus Hargett, president of the National Guard Association of the United States and the former adjutant general of Tennessee. “In this fiscal environment, state facility managers will have to get creative and look beyond permanent, brick-and-mortar solutions to find more storage space,” said Hargett. “One promising approach is to consider portable, modular weapons and storage vaults over permanent structures. Their cost, portability and ease of installation could be attractive for years to come.” Portable, modular Armag vaults, custom-manufactured by Bardstown, Ky.-based Armag Corporation, are approved for ammunition and weapons storage by all branches of the U.S. military in accordance with DoD 5100.76M, AR190-11, and OPNAVINST 5530.13C. The company, a U.S. Federal Contractor Verified Vendor, is
recognized by the U.S. military as an authority in highly secure, modular buildings, and served as a consultant to the U.S. Navy in developing the Type 2 specification for explosives storage. “Significant advances in portable, modular weapons storage vaults, including the ability to customize them to a variety of needs and locales, are making them an attractive option over permanent structures for facility managers,” said Hargett. “Portable, modular weapon and ammunition storage vaults can be engineered for extreme environments, including hurricane winds and extreme heat and cold,” added Paul Haydon, president of Armag Corp. “They have been used in the Afghanistan desert, which reaches 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and northern Canada and Alaska, where temperatures can drop to -50 degrees Fahrenheit for months.” Multiplex, multi-compartment storage vaults for modular weapons and ammunition storage can range in size from 200 to 10,000 square feet. These modular multiplexes can be connected in several pieces with open sides where they join. They can offer options from sparkresistant shelving to explosion-resistant lights, AC, heating, ventilation and humidity control.
Radio Maintenance and Repair “We are excited to be expanding our footprint in Kosovo, where we have supported the U.S. Army and other customers for several years,” said Chris Bernhardt, DynCorp International (DI) president and acting vice president, DynLogistics. “We look forward to 14 | MLF 8.8
continuing our strong partnership with NATO Kosovo Forces.” DI team members will provide services including repair and maintenance of Motorola land mobile radio equipment, transmission systems and airfield electronics including
handheld accessories, base, and mobile accessories equipment to include remote repeater sites. DI has supported Kosovo Forces and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 2007, providing a variety of services including mentoring, aviation maintenance and base support. www.MLF-kmi.com
SUPPLY CHAIN
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Ohio Army National Guard Truck Drivers Compete in the Ohio Trucking Association’s Truck Driving Championship Ten members of the Ohio Army National Guard’s 1483rd Transportation Company, Walbridge, Ohio, competed in the Ohio Trucking Association’s (OTA) Truck Driving Championship in June 2014. The state-level truck driving championships feed the American Trucking Association’s annual National Truck Driving Championship. The 10 servicemembers competed in the first-ever military exhibition class, sponsored by the FedEx Corporation, and demonstrated their skills in pre-trip inspections, a written test and a driving skills challenge course. The 1483rd Transportation Company also set up a static display of a few pieces of military equipment for the public to see and interact with, providing them an opportunity to see just how similar some of our equipment is to civilian equipment. The military exhibition class served a few purposes. The first was to expose the civilian companies and truck drivers to military equipment. This display was intended to help dispel the thought that our military equipment is too different from civilian equipment to qualify for years of experience when military drivers apply for civilian jobs. The second was to showcase the skills that our military drivers have. This provided the drivers an opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of the equipment and show off their driving abilities. The third purpose was to help start the interaction between military drivers and civilian companies that need good, qualified drivers. Current National Guard truck drivers, current U.S. Army Reserve truck drivers, and recently separated active duty truck drivers are a prime pool of candidates to help fill the looming driver shortage in civilian industry. This interaction provided the opportunity for civilian trucking company managers and recruiters to talk with military leadership and soldiers directly about the time requirement of soldiers with the National Guard, how much time away from the job they can expect, deployments, and other questions that might have been a roadblock preventing companies from hiring more currently-serving National Guard and Reserve soldiers. In addition to talking about the drivers, the companies began asking about diesel technicians and specialty equipment technicians, all of which the National Guard and Reserves currently have. Five drivers walked away with possible job opportunities after the competition concluded. The next logical step is creating a similar partnership with the American Trucking Association’s Technology and Maintenance Council’s SuperTech competition to showcase the military maintainers that keep us moving. Article by Robert Ahlers, former 1483rd Transportation Company commander. robert.m.ahlers.mil@mail.mil
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Halvorsen 25K Aircraft Cargo Loader Support DRS Technologies Inc., a Finmeccanica Company, announced today that it will provide logistics support to the U.S. Air Force’s Halvorsen 25K Aircraft Cargo Loaders around the globe. The Air Force awarded DRS Sustainment Systems Inc. a 10-year IDIQ contract valued at more than $175 million for depot-level overhaul, program engineering support and parts management in support of the aircraft cargo loader. The Halvorsen is a highly versatile cargo loader and handler with a maximum payload capacity of 25,000 pounds of either palletized or rolling-stock cargo. The loader interfaces with all commercial and military cargo aircraft and can be airlifted by C-17, C-5 and C-130 aircraft or surface shipped via rail or flatbed truck. Currently, 443 U.S. Air Force Halvorsens are operating at over 160 locations worldwide. “The Air Force will benefit from the synergy of efforts by having both the Halvorsen and Tunner logistics programs residing with DRS,” said Joseph Matteoni, vice president/general manager of DRS Sustainment Systems Inc. “The opportunity to expand on our great relationship with the airmen in the field is paramount to us, and we look forward to providing world-class support throughout the life of the Halvorsen program.” The work will be performed at DRS Sustainment Systems’ West Plains, Mo. manufacturing facility, where the company is currently overhauling numerous Tunner systems for the Air Force.
MLF 8.8 | 15
A next generation fighter takes a next generation engine.
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Q& A
Provider of Installation and Expeditionary Support Activities Major General Theresa C. Carter Commander Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (Provisional) Major General Theresa C. Carter serves as commander, Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (Provisional), Joint Base Andrews, Md. She is responsible for establishing the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, the single intermediatelevel headquarters providing installation and mission support capabilities to Air Force installations. Her duties include the development and execution of the Air Force Program Action Directive. This directive consolidates common installation and mission support capabilities currently performed at 10 major commands and two direct reporting units into a single center headquarters and also realigns to the AFIMSC six installation support field operating agencies currently assigned to Headquarters Air Force. Carter entered the Air Force in September 1985 as a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Purdue University. A career civil engineer, she has served in a variety of positions at the base, major command and Air Staff levels, and commanded a civil engineer squadron, mission support group and two air base wings. Her contingency experience includes service in support of Operation Desert Shield and command of a civil engineer unit in support of Operation Southern Watch. Prior to her current assignment, General Carter served as the Air Force Civil Engineer, where she was responsible for installation support functions at 166 Air Force bases worldwide with an annual budget of more than $12 billion. She also commanded the 8,000-person 502nd Air Base Wing and Joint Base San Antonio, the largest joint base in the Department of Defense, which includes nearly 90,000 personnel and over 200 mission partners from all services and multiple DoD agencies. The wing provided installation support services for more than 380,000 military members, family members, veterans and retirees in the greater San Antonio area. Her major awards and decorations include: Legion of Merit with three oak leaf clusters; Meritorious Service Medal with silver oak leaf cluster; Air Force Commendation Medal; Air Force Achievement Medal with oak leaf cluster; Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with “V” device, seven oak leaf clusters; Air Force Recognition Ribbon; and Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. Q: First, can you tell me a little bit about the reasons behind the creation of the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (AFIMSC)? A: In 2013, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel issued a directive calling for a 20 percent reduction in management headquarters www.MLF-kmi.com
manpower and operating costs. The Air Force responded by conducting a comprehensive management headquarters review to identify programmatic options to reduce overhead costs, increase efficiencies, eliminate redundant activities, and improve effectiveness and business processes. Regarding the proposal to create an AFIMSC, senior leaders asked a simple question—considering the Defense Secretary’s directive, is there a different, but effective and efficient way to manage common, day-to-day installation support/base operating support and expeditionary support capabilities … capabilities which are today provided by 10 major commands, two direct reporting units and multiple field operating agencies that report to the Headquarters Air Force staff? Q: So, with this in mind, what functions and capabilities will reside in the AFIMSC? A: The AFIMSC will serve as the Air Force’s single intermediatelevel headquarters, which provides installation and expeditionary support activities in support of 77 major Air Force installations, 10 major commands and two direct reporting units. The AFIMSC will provide program management, resourcing and support for areas such as security forces, civil engineering, base communications, logistics readiness, services, installation ministry programs and operational contracting. MLF 8.8 | 17
It will also serve as the parent organization for several field operating agencies: Air Force Installation Contracting Agency, Air Force Security Forces Center, Air Force Civil Engineer Center, Air Force Personnel Center Services Directorate, Air Force Financial Services Center and the Financial Management Center of Expertise, a part of the Air Force Cost Analysis Agency. Q: Can you describe more specifically the changes military members might notice across different bases as this center consolidates capabilities? A: We will work toward providing a standard level of service across all AF installations, no matter which major command they’re associated with. To date, each of our major commands could make different choices when it comes to resourcing their installations— choices driven by the size of their operations and maintenance budget, and balanced with competing mission priorities. An added complexity is that more than AFIMSC will serve as the intermediate-level headquarters providing installation and expeditionary support activities in 77 major Air Force installations, 10 major commands and two direct reporting units. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force] 90 percent of our installations support mulstandard for everything, from levels of service to career field educatiple mission partners in addition to the host wing. tion and training for our airmen. So, for example, if an airman is assigned to an Air Education and Training Command (AETC) wing that resides on a base operQ: Why was AFIMSC chosen as a center that reports to AFMC? ated by Air Force Materiel Command, they might see different levels of service and support than an airman assigned to an AETC A: The Air Force has 12 core functions that include areas such as unit located on an AETC base. The AFIMSC will help us establish a rapid global mobility, air superiority and agile combat support. single, Air Force-wide standard of service, applied equitably across Our major commands serve as the “core function lead” and are all installations and in accordance with the service’s priorities. responsible for integrating programming and planning inputs from all major commands in their core function area of responQ: As a follow-up to that question, how will AFIMSC affect the sibility. AFMC, as the core function lead for agile combat support, organizational reporting structures already in place? has responsibility for the five major capabilities that are part of agile combat support—field, base, protect, support and sustain our A: The AFIMSC will not change reporting chains for installation weapons systems and platforms. commanders who lead what we call the “host” wing at each instalOur installations are the power-projection platforms from lation. All host wings stay aligned to their existing parent major which we conduct operations in air, space and cyberspace. Once the command. decision was made to consolidate installation and mission support What changes is who they will call for support and guidance in capabilities into a center, it made sense to assign that center to the AFIMSC-related areas. Today they call their major command staff, major command already providing programming and planning and tomorrow they will call the AFIMSC. advocacy for these agile combat support functions. Q: Certainly many of the changes happening within DoD are Q: I understand the Army, Navy and Marine Corps have driven by tightened budgets. Does the creation of this center similar centralized installation support constructs—Installation aim to eliminate positions, or will it really improve installation Management Command, Navy Installations Command and Marine support? Corps Installations Command, respectively. What did you learn from their experience and is the Air Force model different or the A: While one of the driving forces behind this initiative is the DoD same? directive to reduce costs and management staff levels by at least 20 percent, it also allows the Air Force as a service to make the A: The Navy started its journey toward consolidated installation best use of the limited resources we have to operate and maintain management in the early 1990s. It discovered during the 1988 our installations. Centralizing program management, resourcing round of base realignment and closure that it had significant and support in a single organization will allow us to look across disparities between its installations in the quantity and quality of the entire Air Force and determine best practices, determine services provided to sailors and their families. From those Navy appropriate levels of resourcing and support, and apply a consistent 18 | MLF 8.8
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lessons, we’ve learned that we must have uniform, established standards for our installations, and that we must not allow installation commanders’ focus to be diverted from mission readiness to running installations. Beginning in 1993, the Navy took a series of steps to consolidate resources, program management and installation ownership, and today it has a single three-star command that serves as “the shore integrator to sustain the fleet, enable the fighter and support the family.” The Army saw the same issues at its installations, and in 2002 created the Installation Management Agency led by a two-star general who reported to the assistant chief of staff for Installation Management. [This agency] ultimately evolved to the Installation Management Command, led by a three-star general, in 2006. What were the benefits? The ability to track costs from a service-wide perspective allowed each service to more accurately know what it costs to operate its installations. When resource reductions were required, the Army and Navy were able to make decisions and apply the results equitably across the service. For example, I saw that first-hand last summer after giving up command of Joint Base San Antonio and starting duties at the Pentagon as the Air Force Civil Engineer. DoD asked each of the services how they were handling the severe budget restrictions imposed by the Budget Control Act, or sequestration. The Army, Navy and Marine Corps were able to quickly respond and show where they reduced services across all of their installations. The Air Force had 77 unique answers, as each of our installations applied reductions differently. As a two-time installation commander, I appreciate the desire to make decisions at a local level. Yet, when viewed from a service perspective, or from the perspective of an airman and his or her family moving from one base to another, the lack of standardization can be problematic. The other services have been great partners in discussing their lessons learned and we intend to continue the dialogue as we go forward. Q: I noticed that AFIMSC includes both installation and mission support as part of its name. Is there any significance to including both terms? A: One of the reasons why the Air Force has been reluctant to consolidate these activities in the past is the unique way in which we provide installation and mission support activities, both at home station and in deployed locations around the world. Every day we have young airmen working side-by-side with talented civilians at our installations to service and support the various missions operating at the base. We do this in order to provide those airmen with the training and experience they need to deploy around the world when required to establish, open, operate, sustain and close forward operating locations. Operating installations and supporting mission units are absolutely integral to how we operate on a daily basis in the Air Force, so it’s natural for AFIMSC to include those capabilities in its job jar. I also had the opportunity to speak with senior leaders at every major command, and I asked them to define success for the AFIMSC. The most common measure of success was “responsiveness,” followed closely by the admonition to “never forget that the mission comes first.” I felt strongly about including the mission in the title of the organization so that every time someone says the 20 | MLF 8.8
name, thinks about the organization or writes down the acronym, they never forget we exist to support the missions that operate from our installations. AFIMSC doesn’t roll off the tongue easily, so I tell people a good way to remember the acronym “AFIMSC” is to think, “I’M Supporting Commanders,” because that’s what it’s all about. Q: Some would say that this way of managing installation and mission support capabilities flies in the face of Air Force culture—moving away from the “one base, one boss” concept. How do you respond to that? A: First, I would highlight something I pointed out earlier, and that is more than 90 percent of our installations support multiple mission partners. More than 40 percent of Air Force mission wings do not own organic mission support groups and therefore rely on another unit to provide the civil engineer, contracting, security, etc., support they need to accomplish their mission. The AFIMSC will provide support at the next level of command in the same way our host wing commanders support multiple mission partners at their installation. The reality is we no longer live in a “one base, one boss” world, whether at home station or at deployed locations around the world. The AFIMSC concept also aligns installation and mission support with the tenets of airpower contained in Air Force Basic Doctrine. Our new defense strategy shifting focus toward the Asia-Pacific Theater underscores the value of combat support capabilities across this vast geographic expanse. Projecting power in this theater in an anti-access/area denial combat environment requires a single airman who maintains the broad, strategic perspective necessary to balance and prioritize the use of a powerful enabling capability—contingency basing—that is in short supply due to recent and projected declines in installation and mission support resources. Hence, just like we endorse the concept of centralized control and decentralized execution of close air support for ground operations by a single responsible, accountable airman, we endorse this same concept as we apply it to the centralized control and decentralized execution of installation and mission support capabilities by a single responsible, accountable commander—in this case, the AFIMSC commander. Our measures of merit will remain those defined by the measure of effectiveness of our supported commanders. We’re committed to delivering what our operational commanders need to be successful. Q: What closing thoughts do you have for our audience? A: First, I’m honored to take on this new assignment and appreciate the significance this change will have for our Air Force. Second, realizing the budget constraints facing our Air Force and seeing the very difficult decisions we were forced to make in the last few years, I’m committed to ensuring we make the AFIMSC the ready and responsive organization our installations and major commands need and deserve. Finally, this is going to be an evolution in how we support our installations and we will work to be as transparent as possible as we assume our new role. Thank you again for the great opportunity to talk a little about our Air Force’s new Installation Mission Support Center! O www.MLF-kmi.com
Complementary Talents
Organic or non-organic—that is the question. By Henry Canaday, MLF Correspondent
initial design life and we provide the safety and quality needed for these Military aircraft are kept flying, sustained, modified and extended aircraft to continue flying for years,” Meserve stressed. And along with in their useful lives by an extraordinary set of organizations. There is its maintenance capabilities, the Air Force has several areas in which extensive collaboration among several levels of organic maintenance it excels. These include landing gear, avionics, pneumatics, hydraulics, by uniformed military and non-uniformed government workers. engines and composites. These organic resources are assisted by another set of non-organic, or Still, “it’s clear that our industry partners bring significant value private, firms that have come to play a critical role in sustaining U.S. to the Air Force depot maintenance enterprise,” Meserve said. Industry dominance of the skies. strengths include independent research and development, as well as The sustainment base is thus highly complex, but hardly hapdevelopment of cutting-edge technologies and processes requiring hazard. This base is constructed by the decisions of government unique maintenance skill sets. “Private firms also have the creativsustainment planners who examine carefully and model thoroughly ity and innovation needed to modernize our fleet for future wartime all sustainment choices. Both technical and economic aspects of every requirements. They also have the ability to leverage resources and option are thoroughly scrutinized. experience from both the commercial and military side of the private Where private firms are under review for sustainment roles, aviation maintenance business.” competition is frequently intense. And often, in today’s sustainment Meserve argued that adoption of best practices is a world, even government depots must compete with two-way street. “The Air Force depot enterprise has a both private firms and each other for each piece of history of benchmarking best practices from industry maintenance or modification work. partners in both military and commercial aviation mainSo the answer to the question of which entity, tenance, repair and operations.” Conversely, he noted organic or non-organic, should perform a particular that many industry partners have also learned from Air piece of work is very specific. Nevertheless, experiForce business practices and incorporated them into ence has revealed some important patterns. It has their production processes. shown the government is generally better at some The bottom line is that successful, efficient and costtasks while the private sector may offer advantages effective depot maintenance is best executed through at others. government-industry partnerships. Every weapon sysAnd sometimes the real question is not which type Colonel Jeffery Meserve tem and product line brings unique requirements. of entity, organic or non-organic, does the work, but “Through partnering, the strengths of government and private sector how it is done. What are the best practices, often developed by private maintenance can be leveraged,” Meserve said. “Our industrial partnerfirms in commercial aviation work, which might be applied to military ships have a strategic role in aligning our resources to the overall sustainment? mission of the Department of Defense. The strategic combination Veterans of recent sustainment work, at both government depots of organic and industrial partnerships far outpaces anything we can and in private firms, have learned some lessons about what each kind achieve separately.” of institution is best at, and how both sides of the sustainment partnerNon-organic entities take a similar perspective, but each sees some ship can share and benefit from best practices developed elsewhere. different details, depending on specific types of work. For example, AAR “The Air Force organic capabilities for depot-level maintenance now handles parts of the supply chains for U.S. Navy depots at Cherry are vast,” noted Colonel Jeffery Meserve, vice director of logistics for Point, N.C., Jacksonville, Fla. and Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah. the Air Force Sustainment Center at Tinker Air Force Base. The Air “Government depots perform well when low quantities of parts Force has three large complexes covering the industrial maintenance are involved in combination with a major investment in capital equiprequirements for aircraft, missiles, engines, exchangeable components ment,” summarized Robert Sopp, executive vice president of aircraft and software. These centers also possess a host of supporting technolocomponent services at AAR. Sopp argued that this combination of gies, engineering and weapon system sustainment functions. “There is expensive capital equipment and small part quantity does not usually little that our organic maintenance can’t handle,” Meserve said. offer a good business case for a profit-seeking private company. “MiliNevertheless, the Air Force has strong partnerships with industry tary depots do well on anything they can focus their resources on.” to bring forth additional capabilities, enable agility and achieve costOn the other hand, Sopp called supply chains the Achilles heel effective readiness, all while sustaining the nation’s defense industrial of government depots. “A component can sit for a year or more waitbase. ing on a part. The process is very slow and bureaucratic, and they The special strengths of Air Force organic maintenance include buy things they don’t need, which they eventually have to sell off as the ability to streamline and sustain legacy weapon systems, engines surplus.” Sopp argued that firms like AAR can help depots with supplyand components that industry does not view as economically viable. chain management so depots can begin repairing and overhauling “We’ve become experts at maintaining a fleet that is well beyond its 22 | MLF 8.8
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ernment sustainment staff. Due to the urgency of needs under tight items when they arrive at technicians’ benches, rather than putting budgets, government staff has often been forced to continue relying on failed items on a shelf awaiting parts. legacy information systems, while the private sector has been able to “Another area where private firms do better is in maintaining modernize its information systems to increase efficiency. lean supply chains and inventories,” Sopp said. “For example, if AAR Davis noted several specific areas for possible improvements. For is asked to fix a valve on a Boeing 737, it gets taken off at the airport, example, the painting of aircraft surfaces is governed by a number of sent to AAR, fixed there and sent back to the customer warehouse in regulatory agencies, such as OSHA and EPA. These regulators assume a reusable shipping container. The private sector supply chain is very the availability of very modern technologies and procedures common lean and has fewer spare components accumulating in warehouses.” in the private sector. But many government requests for proposals In contrast, Sopp said parts coming off military aircraft first appear to assume legacy technologies will be used. In many cases, accumulate in government warehouses and are afterwards shipped Davis said, the modern painting technologies would make painting to designated organic or non-organic depots for repair. He attributed easier as well as more consistent with regulators’ wishes. this practice to long contracting cycles and the sheer number of spare Another potential improvement is in the difference between prounits in the supply chain. “The government could save money by reduction and repair standards for some military aircraft. Davis said proevaluating their supply chain and adopting many of the best practices duction tolerances for some faults on new aircraft coming out of the from the airlines. Extra spare components could be reduced through factory are often more liberal than those allowed in repair manuals for attrition.” aircraft coming into depots. Recognizing that the production standard Sopp believes private firms are also more efficient due to their is satisfactory could save some money. profit motive. They can provide better value to the government by Davis said government and private firms constantly share best investing in equipment and spares to shorten turnaround times on practices. And he believes the current collaboration component repairs and overhauls. between organic and non-organic units is generally Don Davis is now vice president of operations for the best that he has seen in 40 years of aircraft mainsustainment and modernization at DRS Technologies, tenance. This collaboration has traditionally been reinwhich helps overhaul C-130s. Davis had sustainment forced by frequent symposiums on maintenance. But experience at Boeing and once worked in maintenance recent funding cuts may hurt future exchanges of inforin the Marine Corps. “The government is very good at mation. Due to limited defense funds, Davis said he sees engineering and contracting,” Davis said. more industry participants and fewer government ones Davis said government depots and air logistics at recent symposiums, and that worries him a little bit. centers develop very strong relationships with aircraft Boeing has engaged in many ambitious sustainmanufacturers. These relationships enable government partnerships with government depots. Ron Aarns, ment engineers to help determine both the design of Don Davis director of operations and integration, stressed there aircraft and the long-term sustainment model that are key capabilities held by both government and will be used to support them. “The government does industry. “In the case of Boeing, we bring in-depth OEM a good job in both providing sustainment inputs and knowledge of a wide range of fielded aircraft,” Aarns in sustainment planning. Institutions like the Defense pointed out. And he said the manufacturer also has Acquisition University are essential to a long-term established commercial supply chains and possesses vision and sustainment modelling.” volume buying power and global access through its Davis thinks the government is also good at balAviall subsidiary. ancing affordability with sustainment requirements. “The key to successful sustainment programs is “When an aircraft is called into combat where there leveraging the best of both government and industry will be sand erosion and heavy loading, the governcapabilities in a non-duplicative manner,” Aarns said. ment depots re-model their plans for affordability.” “That’s why partnerships are so important.” And Davis argued that the government is generally Ron Aarns One example of a productive partnership is joint very competent at interfacing with original equipment government-and-industry engineering teams. These can improve manufacturers (OEMs) and non-OEM contractors. readiness through rapid response and resolution of issues partly Non-organic private firms, in contrast, are good at efficiently because they have ready access to OEM design and engineering data. executing well-defined work scopes. According to Davis, “Industry is Still, “it’s important to acknowledge that partnerships do not very good at lean, tooling and well-defined work. And private firms can exclude competition,” Aarns said. He believes competition among invest more and compete with each other to give the government a different possible sustainment providers is important to ensuring quality product at an affordable price.” affordability. And it makes sense where sufficient capability exists and Davis said the private sector tends to be better than the governit can be carried out through a performance-based contract. “In the ment at managing touch labor, exploiting scale economies, calculating end, it is all about reducing or eliminating redundancies and leverageconomic order quantities and generally handling the supply chain. “If ing the best capabilities to optimize readiness and drive life cycle cost there is a change in work scope, we can do more accurate predictions reductions.” O and buying. The government must look at historical purchases. We have a sharper edge, because we are less constrained by the process.” Davis thinks some best practices of industry could definitely be adopted by government. He pointed out that there have been a lot For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories of budget cuts affecting government white collars, yet the workload at www.mlf-kmi.com. has continued to run at full steam, putting intense pressure on govwww.MLF-kmi.com
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Intelligent Power
Can smart systems provide savings to an organization as large and far-flung as DoD and its services? By William Murray, MLF Correspondent
How the U.S. military purchases installation power and its ability to save money in both fixed-installation and deployed environments has seen a renewal through the use of microgrid systems. With companies supplying entire microgrid systems and making distribution boxes for existing and new-build power grids, migrogrid seems to be the future of energy. In addition to the need to save money in a downsized, postAfghanistan and Iraq military in a way that reduces the upfront cost investment, there is also an increased interest in cybersecurity and removing any potential vulnerabilities in the power grid in military installations. Through an energy surety model, Department of Defense officials are seeking to provide reliable, safe, cost-efficient energy that can balance employee comfort with cost savings and survive natural and man-made disasters through energy independence. Modern, small-scale versions of the centralized electricity system, microgrids are one component of the overall smartgrid that can achieve specific installation goals, such as carbon emission reduction, cost reduction, energy source diversification and power reliability. Considered by some as an ideal way to integrate renewable resources on the local level, smart microgrids can distribute, generate and regulate the electrical flow to users locally. “In the past, DoD would buy electrical service,” said Andrew Wakefield, director of government and original equipment manufacturer solutions for Lutron Electronics Co. Inc., a dimmer and lighting control company based in Coopersburg, Pa. “Now, they are interested in saving money when the lights are on,” using whatever means are at their disposal, he said. Founded in 1961 by Navy veterans, Lutron Electronics has seen more Department of Defense interest in reducing energy consumption in the last five years, in part because of the more aggressive mandates issued by the Obama administration, such as through the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, to help provide a more green government. Military officials want to learn more about smart grids and digital intelligence and how they can save the armed services money. According to Wakefield, Lutron Electronics focuses its efforts on fixed DoD installations overseas and in the continental United States. In its work with civilian agencies, Lutron Electronics claims to have helped the 38-floor Jackson Federal Building in Seattle, Wash.— owned by GSA and built in 1974—reduce its energy consumption by 45 percent. According to Wakefield, 20 to 30 percent savings are in the normal realm of possibility for installations, with savings up to 40 percent possible with good sunlight. In a best-case scenario, some government installations could realize energy consumption savings up to 60 percent. At the Jackson Federal Building, some of the 2,300 personnel in the 854,000-square-foot building were so uncomfortable with the excessive bright fluorescent lighting that they placed cardboard over entire sections of lights. Uncontrolled natural lighting, meanwhile, 24 | MLF 8.8
could produce glare and heat that would make it difficult to sit near a window, causing some personnel to have headaches and pointing out an obvious need for anti-glare film on windows. In part through the use of wireless technologies, Lutron Electronics can install its electronics systems overnights and during weekend operations so its personnel don’t interrupt the daily functions of tenant organizations. Lutron Electronics government customers include the Army National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., and installations can take six to 12 months. Wakefield noted, however, that some installations can save 10 to 20 percent on electricity through a 15-minute change-out of their lighting control fixtures. “Budgets are fairly tight now,” said Wakefield, who joined Lutron in 2001 after serving for nine years as an active duty naval flight control officer. He is a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves and leads Lutron’s Washington, D.C. operations. As the U.S. military pulls out of Afghanistan and further consolidates its operations after the Iraq War, DoD officials are increasingly looking for products and services that can save them money on operations and maintenance functions. Illuminating interiors accounts for about 40 percent of the typical energy use of a commercial building, according to Lutron Electronics. The company’s products and services have occupancy sensors, so they turn off and on depending on whether people are occupying a space. Through what is known as daylight harvesting, Lutron Electronics EcoSystem daylight sensors dim or turn off electric lighting on each floor of a building in all perimeter facades when daylight is available. In addition, Lutron’s Green Glance monitoring and display software for Quantum systems gives facility managers a snapshot and historic view of energy savings throughout a building. Another Lutron feature, Quantum Total Light Management, maximizes the light usage to save energy, improve productivity and simplify operations via centralized dimming and switching control of all electric lighting. Lighting controls helped to save $289,000 in Jackson Federal Building lighting electricity costs in 2013, according to Lutron Electronics. The system also integrates well with other building-management systems via BACnet IP, allowing for better optimization of building systems, greater energy savings and more effective monitoring and maintenance. “Most people can’t discern the difference between 100 percent and 80 percent” light visibility, Wakefield said. Lutron Electronics helps its installation customers set different lighting levels for emergency and normal operations use, according to Wakefield. In some cases, DoD installations are working with consortiums of energy supply companies (ESCOs) that are working in partnership with product and service providers, such as those that provide modeling and data analysis, to supply electricity at a reduced rate to the installation. John Carroll, director of business development at Intelligent Power and Energy Research Corporation (IPERC), a microgrid technology company in Fort Montgomery, N.Y., is seeing third-party financing of www.MLF-kmi.com
microgrid installations becoming more important, provided in some cases through limited liability corporations. “The right-sized military is looking to the private sector to provide that service,” said Carroll, who has worked with IPERC for a year. Military officials are willing to own and operate microgrid models and maintenance materials. “In the commercial world, it’s all about what you can save me. In the military, it’s how you can save me,” he said. IPERC designs and manufactures microgrid controllers, including hardware and software, and provides installation services. “The interest in cybersecurity is growing and is very important,” since potential cybersecurity attacks could seek to disrupt power supplies to critical infrastructure, Carroll said. IPERC has been in business for seven years. During Phase 1 of the SPIDERS program, IPERC provided a power control management system to a waste water management facility with two diesel generators at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, Hawaii. SPIDERS Phase 1 sought to protect task-critical assets from loss of power from cyber-attacks. Phase 1 also tried to integrate renewable and other distributed electricity to power task-critical assets during emergency operations. SPIDERS I also sought to sustain critical operations during prolonged utility power outages and manage DoD installation electrical power and consumption efficiently to reduce petroleum demand and carbon bootprint and cost. IPER officials are now working on Phase 2 of the SPIDERS program, trying to achieve a 30 percent energy reduction in fuel, operations and maintenance with DoD, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Energy officials in a joint capability technology demonstration. In Phase 2, IPERC officials are trying to determine the economic viability and modeling of a microgrid in Fort Carson, Colo. IPERC also works with the military in California, Hawaii and the East Coast. IPERC’s microgrid optimization algorithms make intelligent decisions and issue control signals to meet peak usage loads and minimize fuel consumption, even turning off unneeded generation through photovoltaic devices until needed. Devices on the microgrid can be added or removed, and GridMaster-distributed Intelligent Power Controllers recognize changes and adjust control algorithms through its network architecture. Any controller may be the “master” and can operate in isolation, as opposed to having a dependent relationship with devices on the microgrid. GridMaster, according to IPERC officials, can be a control system that integrates power components into a microgrid or an energy security and optimization overlay to existing controls. IPERC officials are seeing an uptick in requests for proposals for microgrid services in parts of the country with the highest “pain points” for energy consumption: Connecticut, the East Coast, the Gulf Coast, Maryland and Massachusetts. While Carroll considers these procurements “a very cautious approach,” he noted that municipalities appear to be learning from each other and sharing information. Far from the comforts of installations such as Fort Carson or Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, HDT Expeditionary Systems Inc. of Solon, Ohio provides environmental control units, generators, heaters and shelters for fuel-efficient consumption in DoD expeditionary environments. An operating unit of HDT Global, HDT Expeditionary Systems produces self-powered heaters which use a thermoelectric generator to supply power for combustion and air handling. HDT Expeditionary Systems has fielded expeditionary solar power systems that generate electronics and lighting in shelters that at least meet military standards. This unit and other renewable power www.MLF-kmi.com
resources utilize microgrid technology to manage power demands in forward-operating applications. The company also created one of the first integrated trailers, generator ECU platform in 1994. Additionally, some users report that each component of HDT Expeditionary Systems’ fully-integrated base camp decreases fuel dependency and frees resources such as personnel. The company’s systems can work together and with other suppliers’ products and have gone through years of deployments in austere environments. DHS Systems LLC of Orangeburg, N.Y., meanwhile, for more than 25 years has produced the Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter (DRASH), a soft-walled, rapidly deployable tent system with energyefficient power, heating, lighting, mobility and shelter. The company’s overall focus is providing mobile infrastructure technology. Used by the Army Standard Integrated Command Post System, DRASH systems have supplied rugged facilities for military personnel throughout the world on a variety of missions, including command and control, medical facilities and life support; DHS Systems also sells DRASH communications equipment and support accessories to assist tactical operations. O
For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.mlf-kmi.com.
MLF 8.8 | 25
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Introducing...
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Contractor Logistics Support of Contingency Operations A Defense Science Board task force has concluded there is a lack of clarity as to who is in charge of policy, doctrine, resourcing, training, planning and execution for operational contract support (OCS). Without effective leadership and guidance, a persistent lack of urgency has emerged in training for, planning for and execution of OCS. The task force recommended eight areas that require immediate action to ensure proper attention is given to the pervasive role that operational contract support is expected to play in future contingency operations. To see the complete report, go to: www.kmimediagroup.com/images/ magazine-pdf/CONLOG.pdf
White Paper Forum
An effective way to have military logistics decision-makers, influencers and program officers follow your pioneering research and focused capabilities while driving our qualified and loyal group of readers to your Web site. Elements of featured posting includes • Company name • Title of White Paper • Your unique URL • Description/Summary of your White Paper (approx. 140 words) • Image of White Paper cover Benefits to You • An effective and efficient way for you to communicate your understanding and commitment to a solution • Build credibility with senior level military logistics decision-makers • Increase traffic to your Web site through qualified White Paper readership Your Posting • 4 Featured Postings available per issue in hard copy of publication • White Paper summary and unique URL to appear on the MLF Web site for one month • After one month, White Paper to appear in archives for 3 years For more information on your White Paper submission contact: Jane Engel, Associate Publisher / (301) 670-5700 ext. 120 / jane@kmimediagroup.com
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www.MLF-kmi.com
The advertisers index is provided as a service to our readers. KMI cannot be held responsible for discrepancies due to last-minute changes or alterations.
MLF RESOURCE CENTER AUSA Issue
Advertisers Index AAR Corporation........................................................................ 5 www.aarcorp.com/government-defense Banneker Industries Inc............................................................ 1 www.banneker.com Dell Rugged Mobility............................................................... C3 www.dell.com/rugged I.H.S.......................................................................................... 21 www.ihs.com LOA........................................................................................... 25 www.logisticsymposium.org Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control.................................. 3 www.lockheedmartin.com/jltv National Industries for the Blind............................................ 19 www.nib.org/value Oshkosh................................................................................... C2 www.oshkoshdefense.com/jltv Pratt & Whitney....................................................................... 16 www.oshkoshdefense.com/jltv SAIC.......................................................................................... C4 www.saic.com SupplyCore................................................................................. 1 www.supplycore.com
Northrop Grumman Technical Services................................. C2 www.northropgrumman.com/kc10 Northrop Grumman Technical Services................................ 2-3 www.northropgrumman.com/performance
Calendar
September 23-25, 2014 Modern Day Marine Quantico, Va. www.marinecorpsexpos.com
October 23, 2014 DLA Land & Maritime Combat & Wheeled Vehicles Outreach Forum Columbus, Ohio dla.land.and.maritime. industry.forum@dla.mil
October 13-15, 2014 AUSA Washington, D.C. www.ausa.org
October 28-30, 2014 NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting St. Louis, Mo. http://ndtahq.com/events_ cal_events.htm
October 19-22, 2014 Logistics Officer Association Symposium Arlington, Va. www.logisticsymposium.org
October 30-November 2, 2014 Annual Tanker Association Conference Nashville, Tenn. www.atalink.org
www.MLF-kmi.com
October 2014 Vol. 8, Issue 9
The Publication of Record for the Military Logistics Community
Cover and In-Depth Interview with:
Gen. Dennis L. Via Commander U.S. Army Materiel Command
Special Section Redstone Arsenal Profile A detailed look at the installation and the elements that contribute to its growth and contribution to the Army Enterprise.
Features
Deployed Maintenance The military would be hard-pressed to do without field service representatives. What will be their role in future programs? Depot Maintenance A review of the challenges that the Army depots are facing and what their future holds.
Special PULL-OUT SUPPLEMENT
September 15-17, 2014 Air & Space Conference National Harbor, Md. www.afa.org
NEXTISSUE
Shelters and Shelter Support To be expeditionary means moving fast and taking with you what you need. How small can the shelter and shelter support footprint be? Enhancing Operational Readiness Improving rapid deployment capabilities with an efficient supply chain. Facility Investment Strategy Army Sustainment Command details its Facility Investment Strategy and the way ahead. Global Combat Support System-Army The Army’s GCSS office gives MLF an exclusive update on the program’s implementation.
Special Who’s Who Pull-Out Supplement U.S. Army Materiel Command A special pull-out supplement featuring:
• •
Exclusive interview with Major General Clark W. LeMasters Jr., AMC’s G3/4/5/7 Two-page organizational profile of the Army Materiel Command
A handy reference guide with a long shelf life.
Bonus Distribution AUSA Annual • DoD Maintenance Symposium • Logistics Officer Association Symposium Insertion Order Deadline: September 19, 2014 Ad Materials Deadline: September 26, 2014
MLF 8.8 | 27
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW Military Logistics Forum Karl R. Voepel II Program Manager, Logistics Solutions Operation Leidos Q: What challenges do you foresee ahead and how have you positioned yourself to address those?
Karl Voepel is a program manager within the National Security Sector at Leidos. His focus is logistics solutions—providing affordable readiness at the lowest life cycle cost. A retired USMC chief warrant officer, Voepel brings 31 years of innovative program leadership to his role. Q: How would you describe your company’s focus, goals and abilities to meet the needs of the military customer? A: Our focus is being a leading full-spectrum logistics provider to the warfighters, soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen and civilians serving worldwide. Our goal is to be a mission enabler by providing efficient, reliable and cost-effective logistics solutions that ensure required equipment and services arrive at the right place at the right time, every time. We continually apply experience and expertise gained from current and past programs such as Transportation and Safety Administration Integrated Logistics Support, United States Marine Corps Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare Product Support Integrator, and the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Joint Logistics Integrator program, to name a few. These large, highly complex and different logistics programs give Leidos a breadth of experience to draw from when tailoring solutions. Q: What innovations do you expect to bring online that makes your operations more efficient and better positioned to compete? A: Accurate and timely information is essential to the military’s success and operations. Leidos developed a Web-based application (ProVM) that collects information from multiple, disparate government and commercial upstream supply chain databases, and combines it with near-real-time downstream supply chain and maintenance tools. Government and contractor personnel get unprecedented total asset visibility from a kind, count, condition and location perspective, and also from an as-built, as-maintained, as-retired perspective. ProVM allows customers access to near-real-time metrics such 28 | MLF 8.8
as operational availability, mean downtime, logistics response time or any other required statistic through a customizable dashboard and real-time customized reports. Data collected is used to perform demand analysis to establish appropriate reorder points, perform reliability and maintainability analysis, and establish an effective failure reporting and corrective action system. Ideal for programs of all shapes and sizes, ProVM is highly tailorable and scalable. Bringing it and other tools to programs as a standard part of our toolkit will be key to helping us compete. Q: How do you better understand logistical requirements from the military’s perspective to deliver a solution that takes into account best industry practices and the military’s needs? A: Our greatest strengths lie in our people and their ability and willingness to communicate at all levels of a program. We purposefully recruit former servicemen and servicewomen with recent, real-world, program-relevant experience and match them with industry professionals, ensuring a team that uses a solid blend of best commercial practices and an understanding of today’s military logistics. Open and candid communication is essential. Up front, we’ll speak with stakeholders throughout the supply chain to understand the spirit and intent of all the requirements. After developing the proposed solution, we’ll thoroughly vet the plan to ensure stakeholders understand the solution and adjust the plan if necessary prior to implementation. We continually monitor the process and solicit feedback via integrated product teams and working groups and recommend adjustments where and when required rather than doggedly executing the plan.
A: [We are] certain that the DoD budget [in 10 to 15 years] will be (proportionally) smaller than today’s. We’ve anticipated decreased defense spending and have taken steps internally to position ourselves. Powerful analytical tools such as ProVM act as force multipliers, enabling fewer staff to achieve higher output. These tools, coupled with highly experienced staff and mature, lean business processes, give us an edge in tomorrow’s cost-competitive landscape. Q: Are there any examples that illustrate your capabilities in meeting customer needs? A: The USMC CREW PSI program is a good example. We reduced the complexity of the Marine Corps supply chain by combining the efforts of three separate original equipment manufacturers’ CONUS and OCONUS logistics support efforts and one government support provider’s efforts under a single, cohesive product support integrator that exceeded performance objectives every month for the five-year contract, without fail. The USMC CREW PSI program is a solid example of our ability to craft and execute tailored logistics support plans that meet or exceed our customers’ requirements. Q: With potentially reduced DoD spending, do you foresee more or less involvement in joint ventures with other industry partners? A: Joint ventures allow industry partners to shed non-value-added costs by only bringing together complementary capabilities that pertain to meeting customer requirements. In a fiscally constrained future, we’ll need to take a critical look at what is essential. When we assess a requirement outside of our core competency, we approach industry teammates and the public sector to create a partnership that brings a cost-effective solution to meet our military’s future logistics requirements. O
karl.voepel@leidos.com www.MLF-kmi.com
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