Mar. 15, 2007 -- The Air Force recently presented a prestigious acquisition award to an Electronic Systems Center team that manages a major Air Force Space Command program. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command, and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Sue Payton presented the trophy to team leaders at the annual Acquisition Leaders Forum in Atlanta February 28. 

ESC's Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) team was named the Air Force's 2006 Agile Acquisition Transformation and Leadership Award winner, which is presented for exemplary innovation in effecting transformation to promote speed and credibility in acquisition. 

"Being selected for this important award clearly establishes the $7.8 billion, Acquisition Category 1 Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminal program as an unparalleled pillar of acquisition reform," said Lt. Col. Charles Cynamon, the FAB-T program manager. 

FAB-T will provide joint forces with a programmable, multi-mission-capable family of terminals that maximize common components to interface with different satellites and enable information exchange among ground, air and space platforms. 

Adapting an untested, theoretical, accelerated contract negotiation process, known as Alpha-Contracting, the team "immediately forged a seamless working relationship with its industry counterparts," said Annette Bergeron, FAB-T deputy program manger and leader of the award-winning effort. Together, the government industry team developed and successfully executed an aggressive 10-week work plan, she said. 

The combined government Re-plan team included 43 members from the government, MITRE, FAB-T program office support contractors and the Defense Contract Management Agency. 

"This is a very highly skilled, multi-disciplined team," Ms. Bergeron said. 

Geographic separation of the program office between ESC, located just outside Boston, and SMC, in Los Angeles, was resolved by collocating the core government team with industry at the FAB-T contractor's facility in Anaheim, Calif. The team also reached back to subject matter experts by phone when needed. 

Team members completed definition of more than 300 'Basis of Estimate,' or BOE, tasks and reached agreement on the hours these tasks would require. This accelerated the later proposal evaluation and final negotiations, Ms. Bergeron said. 

In the award citation, the team was noted for numerous innovations and best practices. Among them: empowering, at an unprecedented level, the Integrated Product Team; using progress tracking metrics; scheduling daily team meetings; redirecting resources to facilitate lagging work areas; following a disciplined BOE development and approval process; and providing regular feedback to the program executive officer. 

Air Force Space and Missile Center Vice Commander Brig. Gen. William McCasland commended the FAB-T Re-plan Alpha-Contracting Team for having "exhibited superior accomplishments significantly contributing to acquisition transformation leadership, especially as related to reform initiatives and acquisition programs." 

"We're exceptionally proud to have received this recognition," Colonel Cynamon said. "We're even more proud of the way everyone worked together to make it all happen so quickly and seamlessly." 


CONTACT: Mr. Chuck Paone, (781) 377-5078, charles.paone@hanscom.af.mil