NAVSEA Teaming a New "Culture of Readiness" Delivery
NAVSEA News
By Dave Desilets, Naval Sea Systems Command Public Affairs
WASHINGTON -- The days of stove piped systems development are long gone, and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is living a new culture of delivering fleet readiness in the 21st century that is breaking many of the old production paradigms of the past.
"When talking about systems engineering today, you can no longer discuss it in terms of one PEO (Program Executive Office), one platform application or a single contractor," explained NAVSEA Commander, Vice Adm. Phillip M. Balisle. "As much as we must build interoperability and joint capability into our 21st Century Navy, we must jointly engineer those systems and ships as one team."
That teaming process began last year when NAVSEA undertook a major realignment across its command organization. With three new PEOs and three new directorates, the command, which serves as the industrial base for the Chief of Naval Operation's strategic vision - Sea Power 21, is reaping the results of its new structure.
More so, the advents of the next Navy are the real benefactors as NAVSEA, the fleet and industry break boundaries and begin new processes. The command's new working culture of open dialogue among all its stakeholders is becoming more and more evident in many of its acquisition programs.
At a Naval IT Day conference in Virginia, Balisle responded to a query on how industry could help define C4I for the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), "LCS is breaking new ground in acquisition, in systems development. We can't buy it the way we used to, and we can't build its systems the way we used to," answered Balisle. "On that note, I would ask industry to think out of the box. And we're looking to industry to do just that."
From LCS to DDX, CVN21 and all the Family of Ships that will make up the next Navy, NAVSEA's teaming approach is aimed at moving beyond the buzzwords to delivering real time solutions to the warfighter. During a recent Navy League Corporate Breakfast in Washington, DC, Balisle underscored that point, "Spiral Development (SD) is a term, like others in the Beltway, being floated around more and more. But if we don't act on it and move forward with spiral development, it stands the risk of meaning nothing at all."
NAVSEA has moved ahead with SD through its Surface Technologies - SURFTECH program, charted last year. Like the submarine community's SUBTECH initiative, SURFTECH is managing the fast pace of technology and planning for its surface Navy insertion in an incremented and efficient process that is meeting the focused mission needs of the fleet. The SURFTECH process has already reviewed 268 Future Navy Capability projects, of which, it has found 52 critical to the surface community, including the development of electric weapons. Nine critical mission shortfalls in the current Navy science and technology agenda have been identified, including the need for battle damage assessment capability research and development (R&D).
"We have a responsibility to the taxpayer and the warfighter to invest our limited R&D dollars wisely. The truth is we do not do as much R&D as we used to and that we are looking towards industry for their input," stated Balisle. "That said, we owe industry the necessary guidance and direction that will serve their needs and guard their investments."
Making the most of time and money requires systems to share common baseline software that will promote efficient upgrades. At the Naval IT Day, the admiral premised development of an Open Architecture (OA) computing solution for the Navy by saying, "It is unlikely that we will have one combat system for all ships, but it is very real that all combat systems will share a single architecture."
One of NAVSEA's new PEOs, Integrated Warfare Systems (IWS) is leading the way in OA development. However, in the new command climate of broken boundaries, many players, including one of the new directorates, Human Systems Integration (HSI), are shaping OA.
For their part, HSI is forming the "man-machine interface" of the Navy's combat systems, ensuring the right skills are employed in the right place. HSI is already being recognized in larger Navy circles as an integral participant in determining sequential career management prototypes to determine training paths for next Navy Sailors. Their efforts are supporting Sea Power 21's Sea Warrior initiative and its Task Force Excel training component.
Overall, the NAVSEA culture of readiness delivery in founded on another Sea Power 21 strategy. "Sea Enterprise is more than having efficiency in our endeavors. It's much more than that," said Balisle speaking to Navy League corporate members. "Sea Enterprise is the reshaping of our infrastructure to support the fleet."
Still, visionary terms and Navy buzzwords aren't predicating the movements and actions of a teamed NAVSEA culture "If there is something we are doing that isn't supporting the warfighter, then we ought not be doing it," exclaimed Balisle. "We are a nation at war. With 73 percent of our Navy underway, most forward deployed, there is a clear message of urgency with which we must undertake the challenge of readying a 21st century Navy.
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