INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: R4 Inc.

Lewis, president of R4, is a retired first sergeant with 20 years of service. As president, he is responsible for managing the complex operations for the company’s business, covering four stateside offices and overseas locations. He also provides strategic direction and guidance for R4’s business contracts supporting the warfighter in areas of total package fielding, new equipment training and integrated logistics.

During his Army career, he realized the critical need in defense contracting to provide fielding, training and sustainment support for quick reaction systems and projects for the warfighter. R4 was established for this purpose and maintains a unique business model by providing in-theater embedded support to provide rapid response to changing battlefield requirements and warfighter needs.

Q: Please provide some background on your company and your work in the logistics arena.

A: As a service disabled veteran-owned small business, R4 began as a group of soldiers responding to soldiers. With over half a century of combined experience, we have helped organizations respond to change, overcome real-world challenges and improve survivability by providing unprecedented training and fielding support. R4 has a unique perspective—developed over time spent embedded with customers—to deliver new equipment training, total package fielding and integrated logistics solutions. R4 ensures preparedness by working alongside customers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa to provide high-level support to meet command and operational needs.

Q: What are your primary areas of focus?

A: R4 is a trusted partner for total package fielding, new equipment training and counter- improvised explosive device technology backed by end-to-end logistics, engineering, integration, sustainment and program management. We support IED defeat systems that analyze, detect and neutralize future IED threats wherever they are found.

Our total package fielding and equipment training fulfills performance objectives and provides technical insight. From legacy, interim, and future systems, to interactive electronic training manuals, R4’s solutions provide exceptional delivery and results. We’re committed to responding quickly with foresight and accuracy for optimized life-cycle management of our customers’ critical programs. At the end of the day, we stand alongside warfighters, always ready to solve the unsolvable to save lives.

Q: Describe some of the innovative work being done by R4.

A: At its facility in Iraq, R4 replaces damaged counter-IED devices mounted on the front of tactical wheeled vehicles and anticipates future system requirements through the program manager for the IED-defeat program. R4 sources needed parts from vendors and streamlined transit case delivery so critical components arrive more quickly. Having a location in Iraq allows us to bypass normal military shipping channels, which can take two to three weeks for delivery. By shipping directly to the company facility, transit cases can be in theater within 48 hours.

In the fall of 2008, we opened our first domestic integration facility focused on providing counter-IED support and technology development at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Edgewood, Md. This new location augments our integration facility in Iraq by enabling engineers and technicians to develop, support and rapidly field new and innovative technologies in the counter-IED arena while enabling us to deliver superior performance and systems integration expertise.

R4 is also supporting the Army’s Rapid Deployment Integrated Surveillance System, which is a Rapid Equipping Force effort to install 480 surveillance camera systems at forward operating bases, combat outposts and joint security sites.

Additionally, R4 does repair, training and integration work on the self protection adaptive roller kit, a front-mounted protection system for wheeled vehicles that rolls over and detonates IEDs. We also provide subcontractor support in a program that trains soldiers on equipment undergoing operational assessment and evaluation prior to full-scale development and deployment. For example, we support in-theater data collection efforts for an APL program that provides sensor embedded combat helmets to measure and mitigate blast effects on combat equipment so that future systems can be designed and developed with greater margins of protection.

Q: What has been key to the rapid growth and success of R4?

A: The ability to respond quickly and capably defines R4’s mission and culture. We have a track record of agility, innovation and commitment and proven performance in response to our customers’ needs. We look beyond the now and use our experience to find ways to stay ahead of threats and minimize risks.

An example of this is our counter-IED work. As threats increase in locations around the world, R4 is working to respond to the unique needs of each geographic area. We have a special group of forward thinking, dedicated professionals driven by experience, integrity and accountability. Our success rests on a wide range of capabilities that includes logistics, engineering, integration, sustainment and program management to totally support a system throughout its life cycle. In a sentence, we lighten the logistics load for customers and ensure system availability and reliability when lives are at stake. ♦

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