Huntsville Update
Written by Jennifer Devlin, MSMF Huntsville Staff Writer
On January 30, 2009, the Redstone-Huntsville Chapter of the Association for the United States Army (AUSA) hosted a Bosses’ Breakfast at Redstone Arsenal. Guest speaker Rod Summers, deputy program executive officer (PEO) for Integration, PEO Missiles and Space, outlined a realistic approach to dealing with changes in funding and support within a new administration.
Although the PEO Missiles and Space budget is currently set to increase, he stated that the potential for future cuts may lead to organizational changes and revamping customer support. Summers assured the crowd that if major program funding cuts happen, they won’t hit home until fiscal year 2011 and beyond.
Recognizing that the Army is an essential weapons provider within the missile industry, Summers stressed the program’s commitment to providing capability to the soldier and pursuing integration—qualities that will help posture the PEO for future changes. He remains optimistic about supporting customers and gaining support from the Redstone community.
Summers acknowledged that telling the story of the missile industry and recognizing employee skills, customer needs, and budget cut effects are key elements to facing an uncertain future. The speaker also pointed out that missile development is accomplished best when one generation trains up the next.
Likening the building of missiles to a learned art, he explained that a lack of mentorship in this area, due to funding cuts, would result in a productivity gap. Such a gap would require more than a decade to rebuild capability, a decade those outside the industry wouldn’t appreciate. “It’s a national issue,” Summers remarked.
Command Post Platform
The $504 million (more than six years) contract for the Command Post Platform (CPP) shelter system was awarded to Northrop Grumman in August 2004, and deliveries began in October 2005. Since that time, vehicle deliveries have been consistently on cost and ahead of schedule.
On February 19, 2009, the corporation delivered the 500th CPP shelter system vehicle to the Army in a ceremony held at the Huntsville facility, located on Wall Triana Highway. The CPP team will continue delivering over 180 additional shelters to the Army before August 2010.
As the prime contractor for CPP, Northrop Grumman is responsible for the development and fielding of Army tactical command posts, used by commanders and staff during battle operations. With over 350 people working on the program, this mission has become the second largest program for the company’s Huntsville work force.
According to a recent corporation news release, “the CPP provides common digitized command centers with advanced command and control technologies to give commanders improved situational awareness using Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade-and-Below software and other Army automated battlefield-command systems.”
This CPP shelter infrastructure has been standardized and used for a variety of roles and missions. Phil Coker, the director of Integrated Platform Solutions for Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector, states, “our approach has reduced overall life cycle program cost and increased system agility allowing the warfighter to respond quickly to the ever-changing battlefield environment, both today and tomorrow.”
Key program partners include Azbell Electronics, Waco, Texas; Titan Corp. of San Diego; Tobyhanna Army Depot, Tobyhanna, Pa.; Applied Minds, Glendale, Calif.; Natural Interactive Systems, Portland, Ore.; Gichner Shelter Systems, Dallastown, Pa.; Harris Corp. of Palm Bay, Fla.; Adept Technologies, Sanmina-SCI, Schafer Corp., and Colsa Corp., all of Huntsville, Ala.
MDA Rocket Motor Test
The Missile Defense Agency recently conducted a successful static fire test. The propulsion system test performed at the China Lake Naval Warfare Center in Ridgecrest, Calif., focused on the new MDA two-stage launch vehicle, or LV-2.
This target vehicle is part of the agency’s Flexible Target Family (FTF) and will be used to test the Ballistic Missile Defense System later this year. The LV2 first flight is planned for late spring during a planned missile defense flight test.
As a cost reduction initiative, the agency integrated former Navy Trident Missile C4 rocket motors into its new LV-2 design. The C4 rocket motor’s first static test was held 26 years ago, and it was retired from operational service in 2005.
The C4 Stage 1 and Stage 2 motors provide the required trajectories, accommodating the desired capability for heavier payloads, longer range distances, higher velocities and variable launch capabilities.
The FTF, developed by prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., is composed of targets that emulate various degrees of ballistic missile threats with a broad range of performance characteristics and features in order to present target behaviors that can be tailored to test multiple Ballistic Missile Defense System capabilities. ♦