The "snowball effect" is something that military programs generally try to avoid; snowballs usually end up costing the government a great deal of money as they get bigger and bigger. But sometimes the effect can work in reverse.
When members of the Product Manager Meteorological and Target Identification Capabilities (PdM MaTIC) office reached out to their partners associated with the Profiler system, the collaboration resulted in the creation of a snowball that went right.
The Profiler system provides the field artillery with modernized and enhanced data collection and automated analysis of current weather conditions, as well as prediction of conditions likely to occur in the near future along the trajectory and at a point or area where the weapon munitions are expected to engage a target. The current configuration of Profiler consists of a laptop and requires a dedicated Soldier only on a part-time basis.
"Profiler models the atmosphere that the artillery round will pass through and tailors a meteorological [MET] message to the trajectory," explained Gordon Wehri, deputy director, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine (TRADOC) Command Project Office -- Sensors. "That MET message is digitally transmitted to a firing unit and is ingested into the firing solution, making corrections to the path of the round. This improvement/correction to the trajectory allows the artillery to engage the target with fewer rounds and with greater accuracy, which equates to greater lethality."
That's a major change from Profiler's original configuration. The system began fielding in 2008, replacing the AN/TMQ-41 Meteorological Measuring Set weather system, which relied completely on meteorological data collected from balloon sensors. At that time, the Profiler system consisted of three vehicles and a weather balloon, and required six Soldiers to operate, maintain and secure the system.
SKIPPING A BLOCK
What started out as a look at the overall benefits of the weather balloon sensor ended up quite differently. The weather balloon became obsolete once similar weather information became available via a satellite feed. Profiler began using Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System data fed by Naval Sea Systems Command via the Global Broadcast System satellite. Recently, Profiler migrated to Global Forecast System data provided by the Air Force Weather Agency.
In the end, the balloon was set free, so to speak, as were most of the Soldiers, vehicles and supporting materials. Those "losses" have accounted for a significant operations and support (O&S) cost avoidance for the Army. In fact, in transitioning directly from Block I to the Block III variant of Profiler, the Army has achieved a cost avoidance of $71 million since FY10 by not having to develop and field Block II. The Army is projected to save $32 million per year beginning in FY13.
In the original fielding strategy, Profiler was slated to move to a Block II variant, which would have provided the capability within a separate shelter that still required the assignment of two Soldiers. The PdM MaTIC office determined that it would be a waste of time and money to place the system in a shelter, as emerging technology indicated that the application could fit easily onto a laptop that, in turn, could fit easily inside the tactical operations center (TOC). This new strategy eliminated the requirement for the planned Block II system and accelerated the movement to Block III.
The balloon removal was deemed so successful that the Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (PEO IEW&S) received a Value Engineering Achievement Award in 2010 from the director of defense research and engineering for its efforts. PdM MaTIC is assigned to PEO IEW&S' Project Manager (PM) Navigation Capabilities and Special Programs.
THINKING SMALL
Removing the balloon from Profiler allowed the Army to get rid of two of the three vehicles and one of the trailers. Most importantly, it allowed the Army to reassign four members of the six-person crew. Those cost savings came mostly from the O&S cost avoidance associated with a two-thirds reduction in crew size.
After PdM MaTIC saw the benefits of removing the balloon operations, the next steps were for PdM MaTIC and the TRADOC capability manager to update requirements over time and harness advancements in technology.
Miniaturizing is one of the biggest challenges the Army has faced for some time. Soldiers want equipment that weighs less, is smaller and operates closely with the smart technology to which they are accustomed. Trying to meet that demand while also adhering to stringent acquisition requirements can be a daunting challenge for the Army, TRADOC and the materiel developer. However, when that community works together, operating within the acquisition process is a manageable undertaking.
The Profiler capability continues to evolve with the fielding of the Block III version, which completely removed the need for vehicles and dedicated manning. The Profiler Block III is basically a software application hosted on a laptop computer directly connected to the TOC local area network (LAN), with the ability to autonomously provide meteorological data messages to the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) upon request.
Now, when AFATDS has a fire mission and needs a fire solution, it sends a MET data request message addressed to the Profiler laptop over the TOC LAN. Based on the request, Profiler autonomously generates and sends the required MET data back to the AFATDS terminal. The reduced logistics footprint of the Block III configuration, along with the elimination of dedicated system manpower requirements, will further increase the O&S cost avoidance.
Ultimately, PM MaTIC and its partners from TRADOC, U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, HQDA G-8 and industry have allowed the Army to transition from a system that was very labor-intensive and demanded a large footprint to a solution residing on a laptop, a thin client or a blade server, which offers increased flexibility to support the field artillery mission and benefit the warfighter.
In addition to the collaboration among Army partners, PdM MaTIC worked hand in hand with the U.S. Marine Corps, which also uses Profiler as an integral part of its AFATDS firing solution. The Marine Corps provided invaluable input and support that made these changes possible. By taking part in early discussions on the future of the Profiler system, the Marines will also benefit from various improvements to the system as well as the cost savings made possible by Profiler's smaller footprint.
CONCLUSION
Continuing the philosophies that were applied to the Profiler system over the past few years, the PdM MaTIC office, in conjunction with its teammates, is taking the next step in the system's evolution. The goal is to provide the artillery community the vital weather data it needs using platform-agnostic software.
PdM MaTIC and its teammates anticipate that by 2015, a program called Profiler Virtual Module (PVM) will, in many cases, remove the need for the standard Block III laptop. PVM will be a platform-agnostic system that the Army can use in whatever future Common Operating Environment it develops. Once again, early communication among the PM, user and testing communities is enabling the swift transition of Profiler capability from a logistic and financial burden to a flexible, cost-effective, easy-to-use solution--a snowball in reverse.
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