By Joan Holland
PMA 290 Public Affairs
NAVAIR Patuxent River, MD. - The Maritime Surveillance Aircraft Program’s Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft team participated in an Acquisition Review Board meeting here with senior NAVAIR leadership on March 11, 2004.
“We were pleased to have an opportunity to give our leadership a comprehensive and thorough review of the program,” says Cmdr. Joseph Rixey, MMA program team lead. “The meeting gave us even more confidence that we are continuing on the right management and approval track with MMA.”
The ARB is an important step toward the near-term goal – Milestone B and System Development and Demonstration - selecting and building the MMA, a key acquisition event for naval aviation. Milestone B is slated for the end of May 2004.
The Milestone B decision will authorize the MMA program to move from Component Advanced Development into the SDD acquisition phase using a down-selected prime contractor. The two competitors offering to develop the MMA weapons systems solution are Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
“In terms of validating program management and providing timely approval to proceed to the next phase, the ARB is a key event,” says James Lackey, MMA program team deputy. “We feel buoyed by the success of the ARB meeting. All the countless hours of hard work by the entire MMA team over the years culminated (during the ARB) to give us a solid foundation to propel this program forward.”
The MMA will replace the Navy’s fleet of P-3C Orion aircraft, securing the Navy’s future in long-range Maritime Patrol. MMA will provide persistent Anti-Submarine and Anti-Ship Warfare as well as providing the Navy's FORCEnet architecture persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities along with portions of a Common Undersea Picture. These operational capabilities will be key factors in providing a sustained forward presence, sea domination, and distributed and networked intelligence.
During the ARB the program detailed current and recent CAD developmental activities, gave a program funding status brief and summarized the results of successful Non-Advocate Reviews at both the NAVAIR and the Office of the Secretary of Defense levels.
Additional detail was given about the program’s acquisition strategy for addressing a targeted MMA Initial Operational Capability of 2013. The strategy outlined is characterized by a progressive, tightly integrated developmental and operational test approach and a strong emphasis on modeling, simulation and system integration laboratory use to offset both flight test cost and schedule burden. Additionally, the program plans an orderly low-rate initial production ramp-up of production assets to facilitate fleet deliveries and an award fee-based contract vehicle.
“I am extremely proud of the MMA team,” says Capt. Steve Eastburg, MSA Program Manager, “the level of work they are doing on behalf of the Warfighter is nothing short of amazing. We all feel privileged to work on this program.”
For more information about this release, contact MSA Program public affairs at [email protected].