Army Shadow UAS nominated for prestigious DoD PBL award

The U.S. Army's Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS)-- the Shadow UAS --has been nominated for The Department of Defense Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) Awards Program for Excellence in Performance-Based Logistics in Life Cycle Product Support, a prestigious award recognizing substantial achievement in the area of PBL.

The Government-Contractor (AAI Corp) Team responsible for managing and performing the Shadow PBL contract has achieved exceptionally high readiness (highest operational availability of any aviation asset in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)/ Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)), while simultaneously reducing system costs and improving reliability, the nomination states.

As of May 2010, the Shadow System has flown 500,000 operational hours of which over 90-percent have been flown in combat.

"We are proud of the work we have done in Performance-Based Logistics. Flights show how readiness rates have improved and how incident rates have dropped dramatically over the last several years as we have implemented PBL. We have been able to increase the timeliness of repairing spare parts. By repairing more of the parts quicker, we are avoiding new buys of spare parts. All of this is being done in an enviroment that is driving down costs dramatically," said Tim Owings, deputy project manager, Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

Instead of merely purchasing a given number of repair parts to replace aging elements of the Shadow system, a Performance-Based Logistics approach has enabled Project Manger UAS to integrate logistics, engineering and reliability under a common umbrella - thus driving down costs while increasing efficiency and readiness, Owings explained.

The PBL award nomination highlights the Shadow's systems engineering approach, stating that the Shadow PBL team has implemented seven major system modifications in the past 12 months, involving engine, battery power, communications, payload, software and human factors improvments.

"From where we sit inside the Army, PBL has given us unprecedented control over the assets that we manage. For something changing as fast as unmanned aircraft system- they are very dynamic systems at a very high fielding rate - we have been able to continually drive down costs and drive down incidents while continually spiralling in technology."

The nomination also praises the Shadow UAS for its readiness and availability, stating "when U.S. Special Forces needed a TUAS capability quickly and couldn't afford the time to train operators and technicians, the UAS Program Mangement Office and AAI responded immediately with a Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GO-CO) TUAS capability. The GO-CO Program formed two teams to operate government-owned Shadow Systems. Each team deployed to Iraq in less than 90 days."

The cost savings, materiel reliability and increased operational tempo for the Shadow have been substantial as well. The nomination cites a 30-percent decrease in Shadow total ownership costs from FY08 to FY10; additionally, the annual cost of readiness for the Shadow systems has decreased as well.

"Just since Fy 2005 we were running about $2.2 million in terms of cost of readiness - that is the total cost that it takes for a fielded Shadow system to operate for a year - that number today is down in the $790,000 range. You are looking at a significant decrease in cost at a time when you have increased fielding, increased technology rotations into the systems and increased optempo," Owings said.

The cost avoidances are attributed to improvements in design, decreased spare parts requirements, reduced transportation costs and implementation of Lean Six Sigma methodologies, the nomination states.