Firefinder Team Wins DoD Value Engineering Award

Jul 8, 2008
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[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]The DoD recognized the value engineering achievement award winners for 2007, in more than 20 categories, during a ceremony at the Pentagon on June 19.

Amongst those receiving an award from Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, the Honorable Dr. James Finely, were Lt. Col. Al Visconti, former product manager radars, and his Firefinder, Reliability, Maintainability Improvement Program Team to include: Michael Siliato, Frank Vellella, Gregg Mullen and Ken Pickett.

Visconti and his team received the DoD Value Engineering Achievement Award (Team) for their initiative to replace the radar processor and transmitter on the AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder.

“We were pleased to receive the award because the Firefinder team has been working hard on taking a good system and smartly getting the stakeholder feedback in deciding what to do by attacking issues effecting the reliability of the system,” said Visconti.

Their proposal, which is anticipated to save more than $5 billion over the course of its stated lifetime, was amongst 1,373 in-house value engineering proposals and contractor-initiated value engineering change proposals accepted across the DoD in 2007.

The Firefinder radars are designed to detect indirect fire from cannons, rockets and artillery. Once a location is pinpointed “friendly forces can determine whether to counterfire with our own artillery or mortars, send out a reconnaissance team or bring in a UAV to bring some effect on the enemy,” said Visconti.

“At the beginning of the war we started to see some recurring trends, the system went from infrequent use to becoming one of the primary forward operating base force protection systems,” said Visconti. Due to the increase in operations tempo, the system began to experience failures in some unexpected components.

As the system was proving to be a critical need and downtime a possible vulnerability for soldiers, Siliato, the Firefinder assistant product manager brought together a team of engineers, manufacturers, and combat veteran operators to find a way to keep the radars in the fight. “We brought together all the stakeholders involved including those that handle repairs, operate the system, manage the components and the manufacturers,” said Siliato.

The multi-faceted team brainstormed to determine what the trends were and problems facing the system, in an attempt to find a solution to best alleviate radar downtime. “What we found was that if we focus on the transmitter and processor for the Q-37 and put more reliable and maintainable components into the system, we would improve readiness,” said Pickett, the assistant product manager for the Q-37.

The result of the team’s effort produced a new common processor that is scheduled to go into at least 60 Q-37s; and as an added benefit, it will be utilized in more than 100 Q-36 systems. The new processor will reduce the logistical footprint of the old processor currently used in the systems. It will decrease the number of circuit cards from 128 to three, space needed from 20 Cubic Feet to 1 Cubic Foot and cost from $913,000 to $200,000.

The outcome of the transmitter changes will affect the Q-37 by replacing the current transmitters that the team found to be difficult to maintain, and had problems due to its need to be liquid cooled which made it vulnerable to leaks. The new transmitters will be air-cooled, and fault tolerant where as its predecessor allows for single point failures.

“The new transmitter components are easily replaceable in the field with built in redundancy. With 12 transmitter units if one of them is down, you can now continue to operate,” said Visconti. “With the old transmitter if it was down, it was down. There was no degradation of functions. The new transmitter allows for a more graceful degradation until you get the replacement part.”

The process for integrating the new technology will also prove to be a cost and time saver. Every time a radar comes back from theater, it is sent to Tobyhanna Army Depot or the manufacturer (Raytheon) to perform a reset. During the reset process the new technology will be inserted into the radar as a part of the process, eliminating costs associated with having to send the new technology to theater for replacement. The new components will also reduce the time the radars spend in the repair cycle allowing for quicker availability to the next deployer.

“The Firefinder RMI was a tremendous initiative by the Firefinder team. Along with being recognized for their accomplishments at the DoD level, these upgrades will prove to be a great cost savings, improve efficiency of the radars and most importantly provide Soldiers with a reliable tool for force protection,” said Brig. Gen. Tom Cole, program executive officer for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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