By Geoff Fein
The new program executive officer for littoral and mine warfare (PEO LMW) is looking to bring small businesses into the fold to take advantage of their product lines, in particular for unmanned systems.
Ann Sandel, who formerly served as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for Integrated Warfare systems (DASN IWS), is now leading the effort to not only draw in smaller companies that don’t require large procurements, but seeking ways to rapidly field capabilities to warfighters.
“How do we best inform the commercial industry of where there is need, where there are gaps, and where we need to have them insert themselves and help us become better informed consumers as well as take advantage of what they have at the product line,” Sandel told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
“We need to embrace the small business partner and encourage them.”
She likened the effort to the Navy’s open architecture (OA) plans to pull in small companies to compete for contracts. “It’s going to be OA in the sense of software and modularity, which they have a very well thought through OA plan, process, instruction, as part of their command wide philosophy [that] I am benefiting from in PEO LMW.”
But it doesn’t have to be just in software or modularity, Sandel added. “There is small business in every aspect of life, so we want to identify that.”
Sandel pointed out that her effort is not to exclude the larger prime contractors. All the same, she noted that much of the work in PEO LMW is not going to be a return on investment for them.
“We know that if we can put that message out in a consistent manner, across all seven program offices, focused, that we will be able to get I believe a response that we haven’t had the time to do yet,” Sandel said.
In the OA philosophy, Sandel noted, there is an effort to enhance and improve the relationship with industry partners that don’t necessarily get the Navy’s attention because they are not the big guys. As DASN IWS, Sandel played a significant role in shaping the Navy’s OA effort.
The Navy, she added, was building a strategy by which it would be able to embrace small business in a way that those companies knew the service’s needs. “In that business case it happened to be software and they were able to address that need through the title of OA or ARCI or whatever you want to call it.”
“I want to embrace that philosophy and call it ‘something in partnership with OA’…small businesses contracting strategy across PEO LMW,'” she added.
The next logical step, Sandel said, would be to have a consensus opinion across the PEOs of the Navy’s areas. “Some of them are similar from program office to program office.”
It’s possible the large prime contractors would still be interested, she added, and that would be even better. “The more we can educate and inform, the better the big guys are, and the better the small guys are.”
The first area of focus, according to Sandel, is unmanned undersea vehicles (UUV).
“Typically, what we are seeing and observing is unmanned undersea vehicles and the mine warfare community and any ASW (anti-submarine warfare) work tends to be an area that you can continue to push the envelope and have greater ability to leverage technology,” she said. “So where we are focusing right now is there. It’s not because the others don’t have needs, but it is the closest requirement that we feel we need to have addressed.”
Sandel sees UUVs as being game changers, in part because the budget is such in the Navy and Department of Defense that the Navy cannot afford to put out a full sea frame or a Virginia-class submarine for a mission that is so specialized.
So where the programs turn to is UUVs, she added.
“You are going to have a lot of focus in the next 10 to 15 years because of threat issues, because of affordability, and the flux of the modularity ability of them to get a product out to do a mission for you in an affordable and strategically targeted manner,” she said.
“You can be that targeted with these resources, and not invest a significant amount of your money to go do something, plus you save lives and can do it much more rapidly,” she added.
Getting systems to explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams or to Navy special warfare units where there is a real-time urgency requires moving from the long-term rigid acquisition process and toward a rapid fielding of capabilities, Sandel said.
A lot of that has already taken place, she noted, all while meeting the legal and DoD requirements.
Sandel points to the effort to rapidly field the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs. She added PEO LMW can do acquisition in a way that really pushes the envelope on acceleration of the time line.
“[We’re] not talking about weeks, [we’re] not talking about days. But you are in some cases talking about a calendar year,” she said.
While the user may want to have a technology in weeks or days, being able to deliver a product, from start to finish in 12 months, is very impressive, Sandel said.
The ability to do that rapidly is due to the support of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), with the support of the warfare centers, the support of Navy’s acquisition shop, Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint community, she added.
“That’s everybody doing there part to help this occur. So you know this is possible. It just takes time and attention, and I believe the lessons learned are applicable across the board,” Sandel said.
“Within Capt. Mark Kavanaugh’s [program manager, CREW/EOD program office] area they continue to have urgent requirements that continue to come in from theater that they are continually canvassing either industry or government to see if there are solutions they can take advantage of,” Sandel noted.
Kavanaugh has turned to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions to avoid having to develop new military ones, Sandel added.
“They go immediately to the shelf and industry…see what’s available and how do [they] modify that to meet [their] needs,” she said.
That is a “completely different philosophy than we have been raised with. We tried to embrace it. It’s challenging when you try to militarize a commercial solution. Sometimes, it ends up being more costly,” Sandel said. “But in their area, given the flexibility and agility, they have been able to do that very successfully, because commercially, technology turnover is so fast and so rapid they are getting the most recent technology all the time as a result.
“I know it’s not always applicable in these other areas, but I definitely think there are some lessons learned,” Sandel added.