Froj Mgr, Defense Communications & Army Transmission Systems (PM DCATS) (February 2007): PM team provides Army's first-ever strategic shelterized tech control facility in Iraq in less than six months.

FORT MONMOUTH, N.J. -- Project managers will tell you that in any given project you can have two out of three when choosing between the variables of cost, schedule, and performance. If you implement your project quickly and want high performance, you can't have it cheap. Or if you want it cheap and still want high performance, it will take some time. And so on. Three out of three? Forget about it--can't be done.

Yet the product manager, Defense Wide Transmission Systems (PM DWTS)--part of the Army's Program Executive Office, Enterprise Information Systems' (PEO EIS) Project Manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (PM DCATS)--achieved three out of three leading a multi-organization government and industry team in providing a strategic shelterized technical control facility for the Army at Contingency Operating Base (COB) Speicher, Iraq, in less than six months and implemented the project so cost-effectively that there was money left over from the $12.1 million funded for the effort. Officials estimate that to construct a building with the same capabilities would have cost $30 million-plus and taken more than a year and a half.

The tech control facility comprises four 30-ft transportable shelters--three housing communications equipment and one housing a backup generator and uninterruptible power supply (UPS)--and provides Tier 1 Internet protocol connectivity to the Nonsecure Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNET), the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET), and the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS), with transmission connectivity through Deployable KuBand Earth Terminals (DKETs).

Lt. Col. Clyde Richards, the PM DWTS, said the new facility significantly increases the C4 (command, control, communications, and computers) capability for warfighters at COB Speicher, relieves the use of tactical units from performing signal functions, and is an "innovative solution" in that it is transportable and reusable at other locations--the first time an Army project manager has provided a shelterized strategic tech control facility.

"The Air Force has done this before (provided shelterized tech control facilities)," said Richards, "but they were unable to provide a shelterized configuration in time for Speicher's IOC (initial operational capability) date of Dec. 31, 2006, because there was a six-month lead-time just to order and deliver the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) shelters"--not to mention the additional six or more months it would have taken to install and integrate the communications equipment in the shelters.

Failure is not an option

After being tasked in late June 2006, PM DWTS simultaneously worked with the 335th Theater Signal Command (TSC) to validate the requirements and called together a team of government organizations and industry partners, asking them how they could meet the requirements in less than six months--Richards impressing upon them that there was no time to underplay problem issues and assume they could fix them later--the Dec. 31 IOC date allowed no time for that.

"I told them this is real-world, supporting the war effort," said Richards. "I said, 'Tell me the real issues now--don't tell me midstream. We have got to succeed--failure is not an option. Period.'" In fact, team members agree that Richards stressed that so much that "Failure Is Not An Option" became their mantra throughout the project.

Richards personally took this message all the way up the leadership chains of industry partners Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), General Dynamics C4 Systems (GDC4S), Protean Shelter Solutions, and the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command, (ISEC), which would provide engineering support and quality control.

"It was crucial that we got buy-in up front for what was expected," said Richards. "To succeed, everybody had to believe in what we were doing and do their part."

And the industry partners did indeed buy in to what they needed to accomplish and to the idea that "Failure Is Not an Option."

"In our first meeting, if Lt. Col. Richards said that once, he said it 15 times," said Gordon Thomas, prime contractor CSC's project manager for the effort. "I got the message and took it back to our folks, and 'Failure Is Not an Option' became our mantra or motto too."

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Richards credits CSC for proposing and devising the innovative shelterized tech control facility solution, using non-ISO commercial off-the-shelf shelters, that would not only meet the Dec. 31 IOC date, but that also cost some $2 million less than the only other alternative, retrofitting rooms in an old and worn-down confiscated Iraqi building at COB Speicher. Thomas called the solution the brainchild of Harry Aderton, CSC's project leader.

Senior Army leadership was concerned about using other than ISO-certified shelters, Richards added, but said that they understood the need to improvise given the time constraint and the potential for cost avoidance. Richards also stressed that since these shelters were supporting a strategic, rather than tactical requirement, there really wasn't a need to meet all of the specifications for a tactically deployable ISO shelter. "There are some minor tradeoffs in transportability and durability, but the non-ISO shelters can be transported on common military aircraft (such as C130s and C5s) and handled using standard military lift, such as Terex and cranes," he said.

Richards said Linda Bartosik, PM DWTS' Iraq team leader did a superb job in assembling and leading an integrated product team (IPT) including members from ISEC, CSC, GDC4S, Protean Shelter Solutions, Piril Insaat Ticaret Ve Bilgis, the Multi-National Force - Iraq, the 335th Theater Signal Command, the 160th Signal Brigade, the 72nd Signal Battalion, the 67th Signal Battalion, the 136th Signal Battalion, COB Speicher's Department of Public Works and Mayor cell and, very importantly, PM DWTS' sister-PM within PEO EIS--the Product Manager, Defense Communications Systems-Southwest Asia (PM DCS-SWA)--which provided outside plant, inside plant, data and voice networks, and even trailers for living quarters.

"Formulating that integrated product team from the outset--that really was the key," said Richards. "We had all the key players up front, they understood their roles, knew the constraints, that there was very little slack, and that almost every task was on the critical path. Linda did a great job getting all those people together and getting them to understand their roles."

Richards also stressed that the effort was a dual-PM project between PM DWTS and PM DCS-SWA.

"Despite both PMs having our own set of contractors, engineers, and disparate business processes, we worked seamlessly," said Richards, "fully synchronizing the schedule and reporting and presenting a single face to the customer."

The shelters reached COB Speicher on Dec. 5, where the team worked the on-site installation and testing around the clock to meet the Dec. 31 IOC date.

Teaming is everything

Bartosik explained the success best by pointing to a briefing chart she uses that includes the names of more than 50 IPT members from more than a dozen organizations.

"We put together a team that couldn't fail," said Bartosik. "When it comes to being successful, teaming is everything. You've got to be in this mindset or you don't succeed."

But the most important kudo came from the customer in an e-mail from Maj. Gen. Dennis Lutz, commander of the 35th TSC, who wrote to Richards: "Congratulations. I didn't give you any wiggle room on this and you came through. Great work by you and your team."

To Richards, maybe the most significant aspect of the project was that PM DWTS successfully applied the Army's acquisition model to a commercialized strategic communications implementation in a war-zone environment.

"The acquisition model is not designed to work in that type of environment," said Richards. "It was designed for developing weapon systems in a safe, industrial environment. We took that model, used our expertise and knowledge of the acquisition business process--contracting methods and laws, how the bureaucracy works, how to get through red tape, and a little ingenuity--applied it to the battlefield environment, and developed a modified process that worked."

Bartosik cautions, though, that the team can't rest on the laurels of its IOC success, as it needs to work post-IOC issues, such as finishing the grounding around the DKET pads, providing a ballistic shield over the shelters and putting a fence around COB Speicher's land mobile radio site--Speicher's land mobile radio system is being provided by another PM DCATS PM, the Assistant Project Manager, Land Mobile Radio (APM LMR). Plus, there will be FOC issues to address, which will involve cutover and migration of end users to the networks.

"We are not done yet," Bartosik said. "We have to supply the same amount of dedication to post-IOC issues and to achieving final operational capability that we did to IOC--managing the contracts, cost, and schedule. So that's a concern of mine to keep the diligence going."

Larsen is media contact for PM DCATS. Contact him at 732-427-6756 or e-mail [e-mail].