By Renee Hatcher
P-8A MMA Public Affairs

The P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health (ESOH) Team was recently honored with a Chief of Naval Operations award in the Environmental Excellence in Weapon System Acquisition category.

“The P-8A MMA ESOH Team has an outstanding record of accomplishment that demonstrates environmental excellence in weapon system acquisition,” said Capt. Joe Rixey, manager of NAVAIR’s Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft Program, which oversees the P-8A Program. “This team supports military readiness by addressing key issues early, and taking positive steps to mitigate them in an effort to deliver this much needed war fighting capability on schedule.”

P-8A MMA leadership established an ESOH team at the start of the program to ensure that ESOH considerations were integrated into the acquisition process from the beginning. Other NAVAIR programs have also benefited from the P-8A ESOH team’s work. The team has shared valuable lessons learned in the areas of Halon (an ozone depleting substance used for fire suppression systems) replacement, and performance based specifications requirements. Several program offices are also using a database created by the P-8A team that facilitates cost effective identification, analysis and tracking of ESOH issues.

Michele Pok is the leader of the P-8A ESOH team that won the environmental award for fiscal 2005. Also on the team are Greg Berry, Thomas Doughty, Flint Webb, Michael Krier, Joseph Krezelak, and Tanya Tonnu.

“The ESOH team is an integral part of the P-8A MMA Program,” said Robin Witte, leader of the P-8A Systems Engineering and Integration Team. “This team is setting a new environmental standard by employing innovative strategies to adapt ESOH requirements to the world of performance-based acquisition.”

One of the significant accomplishments that helped the P-8A team win this award was its establishment of required contactor ESOH strategies. During the program’s Component Advanced Development phase, the ESOH team demanded that each competing contractor prepare an ESOH strategy detailing the approach it would use to integrate ESOH considerations into the development of the P-8A MMA system.

“These strategies provided valuable data and were extremely helpful in preparing the Programmatic Environment, Safety and Occupational, Health Evaluation for Milestone B,” Rixey said.

The annual CNO Environmental Awards Program recognizes Navy people, ships and installations for their exceptional environmental stewardship. The award ceremony will be held in May at the U.S. Navy Memorial and Naval Heritage Center in Washington, D.C. With this CNO recognition, the P-8A ESOH Team advanced to the Secretary of the Navy Environmental Awards competition.

"I am proud that you are working hard to achieve superior environmental stewardship while executing our primary mission of national defense,” said Rear Adm. James A. Symonds, director of the CNO Environmental Readiness Division, which administers the environmental awards program.