Description
Organization: NAVAIR
Team Name: Navy Aircrew Ejection Seat (NACES) IPT
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Cycle Time Reduction (CTR), Evolutionary Acquisition, Financial Management, Integrated Digital Environment (IDE), Integrated Product Teams (IPT), Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), Logistics Engineering Change Proposal, Paperless Contracting
Description:
As the NACES IPT is a joint team of contractors and government personnel, commercial practices are inherent not only in the fabric of the team but in the processes they establish and implement. For example, each upgrade, Engineering Change Proposal, and P3I initiative commences with a trade study of worldwide concepts and products to determine the best technologies and best value to meet each need. Performance specifications, statements of work, and contract language are ironed out up front, together, as a team. This process has led to an estimated 75% reduction in CDRLs and cut contract preparation lead time by 50%. (An earlier ejection seat contract with three production options had approximately 400 CDRLs; NACES contracts have approximately 100 CDRLs.) The team prides itself on keeping abreast of commercial and military advancements and seizes the opportunity to incorporate enhancing technologies. Case in point, NACES boasts the first COTS microprocessor-controlled sequencer used in an ejection seat. The NACES team also actively seeks and plays a key systems engineering role in other major aircraft systems acquisition programs. Prior to NACES, ejection seats were pigeon-holed into aircraft primarily as an afterthought. Systems matured in "stove pipe" fashion making later integration cumbersome, expensive, and less than optimum. Today, the NACES team ensures the escape system is given due consideration as a vital sub-system to the fully "manned vehicle" system. (Remember, once strapped into an ejection seat, a tactical aviator's entire mission is conducted from this platform.) In 1999, the NACES IPT established a strategy for ejection system, cockpit, and human interface control. As such, NACES team members are matrixed to, and consult on, programs like the Joint Strike Fighter, the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System, the F-18E/F, and the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System.
