ESC working to provide upgrades for U.S. and NATO AWACS aircraft

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  The Electronic Systems Center recently negotiated an undefinitized contract action, or UCA, with the Boeing Company on a cooperative program between NATO and the United States to upgrade the flight deck avionics on the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft.

The action moves the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources Replacement of Avionics for Global Operations and Navigation, or DRAGON, program into its engineering, manufacturing, and development phase, which replaces most of the DMS flight deck avionics and provides modernization of flight deck displays and controls. The major shift is from analog to digital avionics, allowing for future growth.

"Updating to digital avionics will enable unrestricted access to global airspace," said Sidney Kimhan, program manager. "It also will provide improved situational awareness for the operators."

The new equipment includes an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System, a new weather radar with predictive wind shear and an Engine Instrument and Crew Alert System for improved safety-of-flight. Two new critical operational capabilities include a Mode-5 Identification Friend or Foe transponder and air traffic control datalinks.

In addition, the improvements allow for a reduction in crew.

"The former four-man crew required now can be reduced to three, as the navigator responsibilities can be distributed between the pilot, the co-pilot and the flight engineer," said Kimhan.

He added that the new technology being implemented is commercial-off-the shelf, that is used by commercial airlines today.

"Because there is no unique development associated, we are looking at significant life cycle cost savings."

A unique aspect to the program is that it is a cooperative program between NATO and the United States. In summer 2010, the two executed an international agreement to share development costs in order to get these needed capabilities.

However, ensuring that everyone could get what they needed when they needed it turned out to be a challenge.

"In accordance with a multilateral memorandum of understanding with NAPMO [NAEW&C Programme Management Organisation], an organization under the NATO board of directors,  a hard stop date of December 2018 was established to complete EMD," said Jill Sentementes, contracting officer. "The only way to meet the December 2018 date was by issuing a UCA."

The UCA was issued at a not-to-exceed amount of $393 million. Although UCAs are often not recommended as a course of action, in this case, if NATO withdrew from the agreement, it would have increased the cost for the U.S.

"Looking at the options, we wanted to ensure we didn't lose the program or our cooperative partner," Sentementes said.

Although all Department of Defense UCAs are required to be definitized within 180 days, many times this cannot be accomplished. The DRAGON program UCA was definitized in 169 days.

"This was the largest [UCA] in ESC at the time and one of the largest in the Air Force," said Sentementes. "Definitization within 180 days is great. To do it in 169, with this dollar amount and the unique aspects is unbelievable. It was a great accomplishment for the team."

Another challenge the team faced was that negotiations were interrupted by a Congressional directive that industry include pension costs, requiring Boeing to submit rates and factors updates.

"The rate update caused delays to our negotiation schedule, but DCMA [Defense Contracting Management Agency] of Seattle worked tirelessly to quickly provide us with a forward pricing rate recommendation, which enabled us to resume and conclude negotiations timely," said Sentementes.

The plan from here is for a preliminary design review in September, followed by a critical design review, then a test flight program with production scheduled to start in 2016.

The upgrades will be made to 31 U.S. aircraft and 17 NATO aircraft.

"This has been quite the journey," said Sentementes. "It's been a great experience."