FACE Team Shines at NAWCAD Commander’s Awards

By Jay Friess
Editor

The Naval Air System Command’s software app store for aircraft received a lot of official attention at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Commander’s Awards Tuesday.

The Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) team at NAVAIR’s Air Combat Electronics division won three honors at a ceremony held at the Moffett Building at Naval Air Station Patuxent River.

Robert Sweeney, lead technical engineer for FACE, received one of two Commander’s Awards given to individuals, and the entire FACE team received one of 19 awards given to various NAWCAD projects. The FACE team also received the Innovation Award for the Technical Support Category.

FACE promises to be an open computing platform that any developer can use to upgrade and add capability to any manufacturer’s hardware on naval aircraft and save the Navy millions of dollars in the process. The team held an exposition in early June at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum to show off the software’s latest capabilities.

Bob Matthews, the integrated program lead for FACE, said the project was about helping NAVAIR adapt to a rapidly changing capability landscape.

Quoting retired Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, Mr. Matthews said, “You can either create your own future, or you can become the victim of a future that someone else creates for you.”

NAWCAD also honored Robert Sweeney; Total Force Strategy and Management Departments Business Case Analysis Team; T-45 Virtual Mission Training System Test Team; F/A-18 Air Vehicle Loads and Dynamics Team; Airworthiness and Flight Clearance International Joint Reciprocity Team; Atlantic Test Ranges Joint Strike Fighter Cooperative Avionics Test Bed Support Team; Automatic Radar Periscope Detection and Discrimination Integrated Test Team; MV-22 Ship Suitability Test Team; P-8A Integrated Test Team; E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Integrated Test Team; UCLASS System Analysis of Alternative Team; F-35B Engineering and Sustainment Team; T-45 Hook Shank Production Restart Team; F405-RR-401 Accelerated Simulated Mission Endurance Test Team; F414 Integrated Product Team; Target Level of Safety to Third Parties Team; Aviation Distributed Virtual Training Environment Integrated Product Team; NAWCAD Command Cyber Readiness Review Inspection and Cyber Security Inspection Team; and Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment Science and Technology Transition Team with Commander’s Awards.

The Persistent Ground Surveillance Systems Support Team won the Innovation Award for the Acquisition Support Category; and the Defense Messaging System Center of Excellence Management Team won the Innovation Award for the Corporate/Institutional Support Category.

NAWCAD also honored Angela Sample, Jason Smith, Gary Bradley and Leon Rhodesthe, recipients of its Patent of the Year Award for the “Quick Release Fitting.”

Before closing the ceremony, Capt. Christopher Junge, vice commander of NAWCAD, asked the crowd to mark the the last day Rear Adm. Randy Mahr’s tenure as commander.

“I know I’m going to get yelled at for this later,” Capt. Junge said. “I think we all should say thanks to Adm. Mahr for his fantastic leadership.”

The audience gave Rear. Adm. Mahr a standing ovation and cheers.

Rear Adm. Mark Darrah will assume command of NAWCAD Wednesday as Rear Adm. Mahr heads to the Joint Strike Fighter program office to become deputy director.

Rear. Adm. Mahr congratulated the award winners, saying, “You did what we asked. You did what you needed to do. And you did it well. … You’ve earned every bit of the recognition.”