From Support to Action
The Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support
has responded to lessons learned from Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom
to deliver material to improve the quality of life and safety of today’s force.
By Marty Kauchak
U.S. Army’s PEO CS & CSS is expanding the definition of support.
The Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support (PEO CS & CSS) notes its focus, in part, is on “equipping and supporting the joint warfighter through development and fielding of systems with increased capability, which supports DoD jointness objectives.”
The office has responded to lessons learned from Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom to deliver material to improve the quality of life and safety of today’s force. At the same time, PEO CS & CSS is the Army’s or joint military service community’s action agency for joint and service-specific programs to support tomorrow’s warfighters.
Broad Oversight
Within the service organization, PEO CS & CSS is part of the Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM)’s Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC). Two other members of this community are PEO Soldier and Natick Soldier Center. The LCMC “unites all of the organizations that focus on soldier and ground systems throughout the entire life cycle,” according to the TACOM homepage.
Within the PEO CS & CSS organization, three program managers report to the PEO.
The Project Manager, Force Projection (PM FP), leads the acquisition component of a team that develops, produces, fields and sustains materiel solutions to meet current and future support requirements of the U.S. military across the operational spectrum.
PM FP’s six directorates manage watercraft, bridging, combat engineer, material handling equipment, force sustainment, petroleum and water, and recovery systems that allow peacekeepers and warfighters to provide strategic and tactical responses.
This PM’s organizational vision “is to be recognized as experts in commercial off-the-shelf and non-developmental items (CaNDI) acquisition, logistics and technology.” This strategy allows the service to use existing, previously developed items and save research and development funds, shorten fielding times and reduce risks associated with new product or system development.
A second PM, Project Manager, Joint Combat Support Systems (PM JCSS) is chartered to develop and acquire joint combat support systems for expeditionary forces. Its organizational focus is on persistent combat and provides capabilities necessary for expeditionary forces. PM JCSS is the PEO’s focal point for identifying mature and near-term technologies required to take advantage of and integrate industry’s investments to meet warfighters’ demands on tomorrow’s battlefields.
One huge project in the PM JCSS portfolio is the evolving Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program, with the PM’s product manager, JLTV serving as the Army’s focal point. The program will deliver a family of vehicles and companion trailers to be used by the Army and Marine Corps. The JLTV is projected to be stronger and more survivable than current tactical vehicles in its class. It also will be more mobile and maneuverable than the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle, being widely deployed in Iraq.
The JLTV program currently identifies 11 vehicle subconfigurations (based on mission needs) with companion trailers in three payload categories. The JLTV’s family of vehicles concept will feature an open systems architecture to allow multi-mission versatility and address future service interoperability requirements and capabilities.
On December 5, 2007, JLTV successfully completed a Milestone A Defense Acquisition Board review and received approval to enter the technology development phase as a pre-major defense acquisition program. The next milestone on the program’s horizon was the projected release of a solicitation for the technology development phase on, or about, February 1, 2008.
Industry members are rapidly lining up to compete in this next phase. The most recent agreement was released on January 8, 2008, when Northrop Grumman and Oshkosh Truck announced their partnership. If selected for the JLTV program technology demonstration, “Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector will be the prime contractor and systems integrator. Oshkosh Truck’s Defense Group will be responsible for designing, engineering and manufacturing the vehicle,” according to the companies.
More JLTV information may be obtained at http://contracting.tacom.army.mil/ ssn/jltv.htm.
A third PM, Project Manager Tactical Vehicles (PM TV), focuses on increasing the relevance and readiness of the service’s tactical wheeled vehicle (TWV) fleet and ensuring that the best possible product is available to support the current force and beyond. The current TWV fleet is composed of the M915, Palletized Load System, Heavy Equipment Transporter System, Heavy Expanded-Mobility Tactical Truck, family of medium tactical vehicles, and HMMWV family of vehicles and associated trailers. PM TV pursues technology that will improve the capabilities of the current fleet with the right products, at the right time, for the right price.
This PM is also making a difference on the battlefield, through its “other significant procurement efforts that include $1.5 billion for safety enhancements, add-on armor and armored security vehicles,” said the PEO CS & CSS’s 2007 command overview.
With an eye on the future, PEO CS & CSS also launched a collaborative exchange with industry known as the Expedited Modernization Initiative Procedure (EMIP) Component Technology Demonstration.
“EMIP is designed to improve the current and future fleet of combat support and combat service support vehicles and other systems. EMIP seeks to identify and leverage industry’s investments in proven, advanced, commercial technologies at the component, and subsystem levels, at a technology readiness level 8, or better,” according to TACOM. As EMIP’s goal is to educate government representatives about these technologies, “the program is an open invitation to all industry, small and large, to actively and physically demonstrate new technologies as potential technology improvement candidates,” according to PEO CS & CSS.
More information about the program and upcoming events, including the April 14-18, 2008, demonstration week at Fort Eustis, Va., may be obtained at: https:// contracting.tacom.army.mil/ssn/emip.htm.
The PEO’s current budget data were not available. A review of future years’ defense program funding for two product managers who report to PM Force Protection provides some insight on the scope of the PEO’s programs and the level of fiscal support from service leadership in the Pentagon’s E-Ring.
Product Manager Bridging “manages or supports 13 different programs with a fiscal year 2007-13 budget of more than $2.4 billion. PM Bridging is responsible for engineering, production, fielding, logistical support and modernization of the U.S. Army’s assault, tactical and line of communication bridging systems. The product manager also has two joint programs with the U.S. Marine Corps—the Assault Breacher Vehicle and Joint Assault Bridge,” said PEO CS & CSS.
Within the same portfolio, Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems “has life cycle management responsibility for more than 45 Acquisition Category III programs with a total budget in excess of $0.5 billion over the FY08-13 years,” according to the PEO. This product manager’s office ensure soldiers have the proper living conditions, nutrition, supply, hygiene and clean clothing, resulting in improved combat effectiveness.
Ubiquitous Products
Service men and women serving in-theater or other operational assignments interface directly or indirectly on a daily basis with a PEO’s sponsored products and systems.
The PEO’s 2007 command overview noted two of its supported products and systems were rough terrain container handlers (RTCHs) and the evolving Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV) mission.
The Kalmar RTCH supports Army logisticians through its ability to travel over unimproved, rough terrain surfaces while handling 20-or-40- foot containers.
“Kalmar Rough Terrain Center has delivered more than 130 RCTHs to the Army, according to Kalmar.
“Sail Army” might be misinterpreted by some as a taunt by cadets during the annual Army-Navy football classic. The motto helps place in perspective the scope of the current Army watercraft fleet. Under the oversight of Project Manager, Force Projection, the force consists of tugs, different models of landing craft, causeways and other systems to support logistics movement in either a fixed port or over-the-shore environment. The Army’s participation in the maturing, Navy-led JHSV program will allow the service to more effectively operate from the sea and become a more capable expeditionary force.
The JHSV reached a major milestone in August 2007 when a request for proposal was issued. The action will select industry teams to provide a suggested JHSV design during a follow-on six-month period.
Eight JHSVs are expected to be delivered to the services. The current program of record calls for the first ship to enter service with the Army in fiscal year 2011. When JHSV becomes operational with the Army, it will dramatically bolster the service’s intra-theater logistics capabilities.
The current design specifications for the JHSV describe an oceangoing vessel 450 feet in length or less, capable of carrying 600 short-tons of cargo up to 1,200 nautical miles at a speed of 35 knots. It must also have seats for at least 312 passengers and be able to accommodate the vessel’s 41 crewmembers.
The hull-form and associated technology upon which the JHSV will be designed and built is expected to have characteristics of an in-service, high-speed vessel.
Austal USA, one JHSV contender for the design phase, has a representative vessel in service with DoD. The company’s charter, Westpac Express, has provided transportation and logistics support for the Marine Corps’ Okinawa-based Third Expeditionary Marine Force since July 2001.
“This has been on continuous lease on a time charter, under multiple competitive procurements,” pointed out Bill Pfister, vice president, government programs, Austal USA.
The Military Sealift Command is the vessel’s current chartering activity.
The tactical lift capability that a JHSV-like ship would provide any service can be gleaned from a statement from Brigadier General Peter J. Talleri, commanding general, Third Marine Logistics Group. The Westpac Express “recently conducted an exercise in which the ship carried 890 Marines, 63 vehicles, and 23 containers of baggage and equipment in one lift. It would have required 16 C-17 aircraft to complete the same mission,” Talleri said.
Five other fielded items in the PEO’s portfolio used by front-line soldiers on a round-the-clock basis are cooling vests, combined laundry and shower facilities, containerized kitchens, vehicle fire-suppression systems and armor installations.
Other Projects for Tomorrow
PEO CS & CSS’s 2007 command overview also highlighted programs on the office’s future horizon, in addition to the JLTV concept described earlier. One project is the Multi-Temperature Refrigerated Container System (MTRCS).
The service’s current generation Refrigerated Container System (RCS) provides mission-critical refrigeration capability at forward areas for military units. The electric refrigeration unit can be set to either refrigerate or freeze. It is used to transport perishable rations for field feeding units or remains for hospital and mortuary affairs units.
An MTRCS provides the capability to transport and store both refrigerated and frozen products in a single container. “The MTRCS went into low rate initial production phase in July 2007,” said Tim Benson, assistant product manager, Product Manager, Force Sustainment Systems, Army Soldier Systems Center-Natick. “About 3,900 MTRCS units are expected to be procured.”
The MTRCS is being produced by DRS Sustainment Systems, Inc., in its manufacturing facility in Florence, Ky., where the RCS is also made.
“MTRCS consists of an insulated 8-foot by 8-foot by 20-foot international organization for standardization (ISO) shipping container with an engine-driven refrigeration unit that will allow operation on the move,” explained Shawn Black, vice president, business development, DRS Sustainment Systems’ Florence location. “The two compartments will be separated by a moveable partition, varying proportions of refrigerated versus frozen product and resulting in maximum loading of the container. The result is more efficient space utilization and reduced transportation requirements,” he added. ♦
The MTRCS will be used principally by U.S. Army brigade combat teams (BCTs) subsistence platoons, and BCTs maneuver. “It is also used by medical units for transport and storage of refrigerated medical supplies, to include blood products,” concluded Black.
MTRCS will enter full-rate production in 2008.
Six additional future projects the PEO is guiding to completion or supporting are the Assault Breacher vehicle, objective gunner protection kit, on-board vehicle power, improved load handling, a wireless diagnostic sensor and a long-term armor strategy. ♦