Boeing [BA] is executing an on cost, on schedule engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) program for the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance Surveillance System (EMARSS), company officials said.
“We’ve made tremendous progress,” Roger Krone, president of Boeing Network & Space Systems, said in a teleconference recently. “It has been a (Quick reaction Capability) QRC program, built and executed in ACAT 1 format.”
EMARSS focuses on delivering persistent, timely and accurate intelligence that can be used right away, called actionable intelligence, directly to the brigade combat team.
Boeing put together a team consisting of Avenge, Inc., BAE Systems, Hawker Beechcraft [HBC], L-3 Communications West [LLL] L-3 Wescam [LLL], Rockwell Collins [COL], Telephonics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Griffon Corp. [GFF], andSummit Aviation, part of Greenwich Aerogroup.
Additionally, Boeing’s Argon and DRT subsidiaries are working on the program.
The Boeing team developed a flexible and affordable manufacturing plan, likely a key element in the contract award, Krone said. It leverages the existing Beechcraft production line and applies proven manufacturing tools and processes to deliver a “quick reaction, low risk program on what is no doubt an aggressive delivery schedule.”
“The EMARSS program will protect soldiers on the ground by giving them actionable intelligence when and where they need it,” Krone said. “That’s why we’re working so hard to execute and stay on cost and on schedule.”
Waldo Carmona, director, Networked Tactical ISR, Electronic & Mission Systems, said the program, the QRC schedule with program of record efficiencies, will save the Army money in the long run.
This is the first multi-intelligence platform focused on brigade combat teams and actionable intelligence, something previously mostly focused on corps and higher levels.
The program, derived from the Aerial Common Sensor project, is moving fast. Boeing won the award in November 2010, an award protested by losing bidders L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin [LMT]/Sierra Nevada and Northrop Grumman [NOC]. The protest was rebuffed and Boeing resumed work in June 2011.
“We start building the first aircraft first quarter 2012,” Carmona said. “We deliver four aircraft fourth quarter 2012 and we have a milestone C decision first quarter of 2013.”
The aircraft will start flying in January, expecting FAA System Type Certification in February.
A QRC like schedule, with all the focus on an ACAT program has not been done before, he said.
The program has a standardized design, a baseline configuration and is to be managed to those standards, which is different than other programs.
“The impacts: reduced training costs, reduced maintenance costs, reduced O&S overall and built and designed as a program of record to last 25 years,” Carmona said. “The bottom line is a greatly reduced cost of ownership for the Army as we go forward into this tactical ISR arena.”
The aircraft, a Hawker Beech 350ER, with slight modifications, is built with growth in mind. The craft has seven-plus hours of endurance, something “unheard of,” and there’s a 400 pound growth capacity for new sensors, new capability, new carry-on equipment, he said. The modular design allows easy product improvement and allows tailoring the aircraft for specific theater requirements.
The aircraft carries an electro-optical infrared sensor, advanced signals intelligence equipment, communications gear, and a survivability suite.
One aircraft now can provide the same mission that used to take multiple aircraft to do,” Carmona said. One aircraft can locate and determine patterns that used to take two to three aircraft. Additionally the front and back of the aircraft now communicate.
One program key is the ability to integrate with network systems such as the Distributed Common Ground System-Army to distribute actionable intelligence. “Without that the aircraft just becomes a collector,” he said. Using other systems to become an IP address on the network will get actionable intelligence to all who need it, provides connectivity that is a force multiplier.
Boeing has an economic incentive to deliver early, in 15 months rather than 18 months as the contract states. However, while the program aims at the 15 month delivery, it’s too early to tell if it will be able to deliver then, Carmona said.
As he assesses how the program is going using the QRC schedule with program of record efficiencies approach, Krone said it is likely the company will continue to use it.
“I suspect we will do much, much more of this,” he said.
Companies that will be successful in the future will be able to do both, large systems integration and understanding of the mission, but that are also agile and nimble and able to bring quick capability to deployed forces, he said.
“It’s important for Boeing…to be able to execute on the big ACAT D programs of record but also to bring this agile capability to the forefront. This has been an exciting program for us at Boeing because we’ve learned how to do both at the same time,” Krone said.