Combat Survivability unit hands out awards. (NDIA News).

The National Defense Industrial Association's (NDIA) Combat Survivability Awards for Leadership and Technical Achievement were presented to James M. Sinnett and Alan R. Wiechman, respectively, at the recent Aircraft Survivability 2001 Symposium, at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, Calif. These awards, presented annually by NDIA's Combat Survivability Division, recognize individuals or teams demonstrating superior performance across the entire spectrum of survivability, including susceptibility reduction, vulnerability reduction, and related modeling and simulation.

The NDIA Leadership Award for Combat Survivability is presented to a person who has made major contributions to enhancing combat survivability. The individual selected must have demonstrated outstanding leadership in enhancing the overall discipline of combat survivability, or played a significant role in a major aspect of survivability design, program management, research and development, modeling and simulation, test and evaluation, education, or the development of standards. The emphasis of this award is on demonstrated superior leadership of a continuing nature.

James M. Sinnett, retired vice president of Phantom Works Strategic Development, now part of the Boeing Company in St. Louis, was the 2001 Leadership Award recipient. Sinnett was cited for his contributions to the enhancement of aircraft survivability through leading the development of next-generation survivability technologies within the Boeing Company and throughout the military aircraft industry as a whole.

At Phantom Works, Sinnett directed large research and development projects for which there was, at the outset, little assurance of a positive return. These included far-reaching classified technology demonstrations, the successful completion of which elevated the Boeing team to a position of leadership in the industry. Under Sinnett's leadership, Boeing Phantom Works attained a position of prominence in low-observables (LO) technology. According to the award citation, the talented core group he nurtured continues to ensure that the United States maintains its significant lead in aircraft combat survivability technologies and is acknowledged as an invaluable defense resource.

The NDIA Technical Achievement Award for Combat Survivability is presented to a person or team who has made a significant technical contribution to any aspect of survivability. It can be presented for a specific act or contribution or for exceptional technical performance over a prolonged period. Individuals at any level of experience are eligible for this award.

Alan R. Wiechman, director of signature design and applications for the Boeing Company Phantom Works, was the 2001 Technical Achievement Award recipient. Wiechman was recognized as a pioneer in LO aircraft design, "a giant whose work to date has given the United States a legacy of improved survivability and influenced an entire generation of combat vehicles." His career in LO design began at the Lockheed Skunk Works where he worked on a number of classified programs, including Have Blue, the F-117 and Sea Shadow. He was a principal figure in introducing a powerful new survivability tool--signature reduction. Because of Wiechman's work, the United States gained a 15-year lead over potential adversaries that it has not relinquished, and the effectiveness of his designs and products has been thoroughly proven in combat operations, according to the award citation.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Unlike the annual Leadership and Technical Achievement Awards, the National Defense Industrial Association's Combat Survivability Award for Lifetime Achievement is presented only when merited by the lifetime contributions of a noteworthy individual to the long-term enhancement of aircraft survivability and national security. Such a worthy individual was recognized at the 2001 Aircraft Survivability Symposium. The Combat Survivability Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Robert E. Ball, professor emeritus of the Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, Calif.

Over many years, Ball has been an important force working to establish survivability as an aircraft design discipline. Recognizing that survivability considerations should be given more attention during the system design process, he saw that formal education could play a beneficial role and provide engineers with the tools needed to design more survivable aircraft. As a consequence, he developed and gained approval for the first-ever college-level course on aircraft survivability, which was incorporated into the regular aeronautical engineering curriculum at NPS in 1977.

By the time of his retirement from NPS, some 4,000 individuals ftom government and industry had taken his courses. In the mid-1980s, Ball authored the first textbook of its kind on overall aircraft survivability. This book, "The Fundamentals of Aircraft Combat Survivability Analysis and Design," published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), is widely recognized as a major factor in establishing combat survivability as a key design discipline among military aircraft engineering professionals.

Ball's important role in establishing and promoting acceptance of survivability as an aircraft-design discipline has been a great benefir to the Defense Department, and to the aircrews flying more survivable aircraft because of his work, according to the award citation.