Group wins Department of Defense award

  • Published
  • By Lois Walsh
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The 708th Armament Systems Group was recently recognized for unprecedented acquisition management success with their selection by the Department of Defense as the winner of 2009 David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award. The award singles out the group as the best acquisition team in the Air Force.

The Packard Award follows the organization's outstanding 2008 accomplishments of winning the Air Force Materiel Command's Test and Evaluation Team Award, the Air Force Association's Theodore Von Karman Aerospace Award and the Secretary of the Air Force's John J. Welch, Jr., Award for Acquisition Excellence.

The 708th delivered a new laser-guided version of the Joint Direct Attack Munition to warfighters in only 11 months, applying acquisition ingenuity in filling a critical warfighter capability gap to strike high speed moving targets with air-launched munitions. Additionally, the improved delivery of the Joint Programmable Fuze effectively tripled production to meet warfighter demand for cockpit programmable JDAM detonation capability. The team successfully conducted JDAM integrations on 10 joint aircraft including the first guided weapon releases using the new Universal Armament Interface, enabling air-launched weapon integrations beyond aircraft operational flight program update schedules. 

According to Lt. Col. Mike Kelly, deputy director, the group embraced changes in acquisition policy that focused on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of its enterprise-wide acquisition business processes in order to provide war fighters with the best weapons systems and support possible. 

"Winning the award is the consequence of having executed the program well and delivering to the warfighter what he they asked for," Colonel Kelly said. "The main thing we did was build on the relationship we had with our industry partners, and also the relationships with our developmental, operational test and user communities to have a very clear understanding, of what the warfighter was looking for, and the timeline when the combat commanders needed it, especially with the Laser JDAM."

Colonel Kelly said using existing relationships with the stakeholders helped the programs run smoothly. The JDAM team  went out on a limb with acquisition reform in the 1990's to try different approaches to how contracts were structured, he added.  By bringing the warfighter focus to all levels of the program office and industry team, they knew the importance of getting the product out. Carrying this approach throughout the lifespan of the program has lead to the accomplishments that were recognized with these awards.


"We have a lot of years of experience in working closely and successfully with Boeing to get the baseline program out," the colonel said. "Then we were able to take that relationship and structure a program to get on contract very quickly, get the work started, and work out the details of the contract as work progressed. That allowed the testing unitsteam to have the weapons ready for evaluation very quickly which let us field weapons in theater within a year." 

The colonel said both programs looked at the warfighter feedback received early on, internalized that information which wasand shared it with the contractors to improve acquisition performance.

"For example, we brought an operational pilot who used JPF in theater out to the contractor facility and had that individual give a presentation on the differences the JPF capability adds toand JDAM capabilities made to the way they prosecuted Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedoms," he said. "That was a tremendous motivator for the prime and sub-contractors to know what a difference that their product makes to the guys flying the sorties which protectings the America's sons and daughters on the ground in the fight." 

The award will be presented by Dr. Ashton Carter, Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics) on Nov. 3.