NAWCAD Awards Innovators
An assistant program manager for logistics responsible for nearly $14 million in savings to the Navy and Marine Corps was among three individuals and 13 teams that received Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Commander’s Awards here Dec. 7.
Five teams received NAWCAD Innovation awards, and one team received the newly established NAWCAD Patent of the Year Award.
The NAWCAD Commander’s Award acknowledges team and individual efforts and excellence directly related to the NAWCAD mission. The award recognizes achievements in specific problem areas, a breakthrough enabling mission accomplishment or outstanding fleet support in the areas of technical, business or leadership excellence.
The innovation award is given to teams and/or individuals who achieve NAWCAD corporate goals. These awards show the value that NAWCAD places on innovation in the technical, acquisition support, system life cycle support and corporate/institutional support categories, according to Rear Adm. Randolph Mahr, commander, NAWCAD, awards presenter.
The individual commander’s award winners are: Francis “Bud” Salmon, T64 engine assistant program manager for Logistics, Logistics (AIR 6.0) Pax River; Farhad Choudhury , program manager, Program Management (AIR 1.0) Lakehurst; and Brian Wasel, Engineering (AIR 4.1) Pax River, assistant program manager for Systems Engineering for the Acquisition Category 1D MQ-4C Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS) program.
The NAWCAD team awards include:
The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System Team for the successful first launch of an F/A-18E from the new electromagnetic launcher at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ. The team matured the technologies beyond the “state of the art” through a disciplined systems engineering process to design, build and test a shipboard solution that will deploy onboard the USS Gerald Ford Class aircraft carriers beginning in 2015.
The Aviation Biofuels Team, for successfully completing qualification testing of a 50/50 JP-5 biofuel blend for use in naval aircraft.
The Strike Planning and Execution Systems Program Office (PMA-281)’s Naval Mission Planning Systems Team for balancing requirements, schedules and costs for more than 28 Type/Model/Series aircraft to transform an unfunded high priority project to fund all component development efforts in execution year.
The Naval Air Warfare Training Systems Division in Orlando, Fla., for its Mentoring Campaign during the summer of 2010. With its slogan, “IMentor”¦Do U?” This initiative increased mentoring participation at NAWCTSD from four percent to 48 percent during the past year.
The V-22 Propulsion and Power Integrated Product Team for forming the AE1107 Measured Gas Temperature Increase Team, in response to an urgent need to improve V-22 engine time-on-wing and reduce engine total ownership costs. The team evaluated raising the MGT limit of the AE1107 engine, thereby allowing more deterioration margin. In seven months, the team developed, qualified, tested and fielded upgraded engines for an initial Field Service Evaluation, an unprecedented design change.
The P-8A Integrated Test Team for demonstrating technical, business and leadership excellence through a series of initiatives in cross-functional/cross-organizational teaming, leveraging of commercial best test practices and prior test program lessons learned.
The CH-53K Day in the Life modeling team for demonstrating business, team, and leadership excellence by developing a new method to more accurately assess the relationships of the ITT manning versus the desired flight test execution rates. The team worked with numerous test personnel, captured their inputs and brought stakeholders together to create a model of the CH-53K flight test program that now supports analysis of staffing levels and will reduce program risk.
The F/A-18E/F Ground Handling Nose Landing Gear Project Team for successfully delivering a “ground handling” NLG that resolved a burdensome aircraft on ground condition. This new capability has facilitated maintenance workflow at ship and shore sites, thus improving fleet readiness.
NAWCAD Lakehurst’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet Blast Deflector Test Team for designing a highly complex Data Acquisition System for JBD compatibility testing. Its efforts included refurbishing an old, inactive test site and outfitting it for the F-35 testing, meeting work space needs for 100 engineers assigned to evaluate ship suitability and modifying the instrumented flight deck to alleviate warping and completing the test program in a major cooperative effort across NAWCAD competencies.
The Reduced Oxygen Breathing Device and Spatial Disorientation IPT, NAWCTSD Orlando, for working with its military and private industry partners to develop a first-of-its-kind training system, a major milestone in naval aviation safety.
The Persistent Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance Team with Airborne Fires on KC-130J Decision Analysis Support Team for responding to an urgent request from the Marine Corps, identified low-risk/low-cost sensor, display and data link alternatives to the current HARVEST HAWK acquisition strategy to support a Joint Operational Urgent Needs requirement.
The Littoral Combat Ship Readiness Control Office IPT from NAWCTSD Orlando for working with military and private industry partners to build an advanced training simulator for the radically new LCS before the construction of first prototype and prior to the vessel’s crew composition and defined duty requirements. As a result, RCO simulators are now in fleet operation.
The NAWCAD Patent/Technology Transfer Team for making a significant impact on the technology transfer culture within the NAWCAD Research, Development, Test and Evaluation laboratories. The team significantly improved the R&D culture and stature of NAWCAD laboratories and employees, with a goal to enhance U.S. competitiveness in the world economy.
Innovation Awards winners include:
The Cargo Resupply Unmanned Aerial System (CRUAS) Team for developing a fast-track contracting and technical strategy allowing NAVAIR and USMC leadership the ability to deploy a “first ever” Unmanned Vertical Lift Cargo UAS (Acquisition Support Category).
The Aircraft Wiring Systems Team for developing, with its private industry partners, a new test capability to reduce avionics Weapons Replaceable Assemblies bad actors using fielded Navy support equipment (Systems Life Cycle Support Category).
The Advanced Use of Force Training System (AUFTS) Team for developing a unique system that offers a one-of-a-kind innovative use-of-force training solution for law enforcement and military force protection (Technical Category).
The Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment IPT – Compact Swaging Machine Team developed a CSM that will replace the current unsafe speltering process with a swaging machine used in a shipboard environment (Technical Category).
The NAWCAD Electronic Finger Printing Solution Team for using technology, lean processes and Continuous Process Improvements to increase productivity and implement a variety of cost measures to save real dollars for the Navy (Corporate/Institutional Support Category).
Stephen Coleman, NAWCAD Human Systems Department (AIR 4.6); former NAWCAD employee, Jonathan Kaufman and former Merchant Marine Ship Captain Ravikant Barot received the NAWCAD Patent of the Year Award for a U.S. patent entitled, “Air Conditioning System.”
Source: NAWCAD Public Affairs
