ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (Dec. 8, 2016) --- Lt. Col. Mark Henderson, product manager for Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 1, was awarded the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, or ASA(ALT) 2016 Army Acquisition Executive's Excellence in Leadership Award for Product Manager Professional of the Year.
The 2016 Excellence in Leadership Awards recognize the Army acquisition workforce and acquisition community members whose performance and contributions directly reflect outstanding achievements in support of the Soldier and in transforming the Army. Presented annually, these highly competitive awards shine a spotlight on excellence and professionalism in Army acquisition.
As the product manager for the extensive WIN-T Increment 1 portfolio, Henderson leads a program that delivers high-speed, high-capacity voice, video and data communications in support of military contingency and humanitarian operations worldwide. In addition to two ACAT III and six pre-Acquisition Category (ACAT) III expeditionary network programs, he also manages the core WIN-T Increment 1 program, an ACAT IC Major Defense Acquisition Program that provides over 95 percent of the Army with at-the-halt tactical network connectivity
"I am greatly honored and humbled to have received this award, but the accomplishments being recognized would not have been possible without a great team, and I am blessed to lead such a highly skilled, dedicated workforce," Henderson said.
"Together we are fielding expeditionary technologies and core network modernization that will help our forces be more agile, responsive, and will aide in the preservation of continued U.S. military superiority."
The AAE Excellence in Leadership award winners were recognized at a ceremony hosted by Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier at the Hilton Springfield, in Springfield, Virginia on Dec. 1.
Steffanie Easter, senior official performing the duties of the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology (ASA(ALT)) and the Army acquisition executive (AAE), and Lt. Gen. Michael Williamson, ASA(ALT) principal military deputy, presided over the 2016 Army Acquisition Executive's Excellence in Leadership Awards Ceremony.
"Lt. Col. Henderson's leadership plays a significant role in helping this PEO meet the Army's strategic priorities for readiness, responsiveness and regional engagement," said Mr. Gary Martin, PEO for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (C3T), PM WIN-T's parent organization. "Mark is a strong, decisive leader and a great asset to this organization and the Army."
Today's evolving missions demand continual agile network communications from home station to early entry to more mature operations reaching to the edge of the battlefield. Henderson continues to innovate and lead the rapid acquisition of capabilities that provide expeditionary network communication for units in flight, in early entry operations and through more mature operations that extend to the most remote locations on the globe. Under his management, many of these capabilities will begin fielding in fiscal year 2017.
Henderson successfully led multiple upgrades to the tactical network across the entire force to the core WIN-T Increment 1 network, upgrades that provide increased capability and network interoperability, harden cyber security and improve the readiness of today's operational force.
These efforts include the continued modernization of the five worldwide Regional Hub Nodes, to significantly improve operational flexibility, capacity and set the stage for new early entry and satellite communications capabilities.
He helped shape the Army's executive order for transport convergence, an effort to converge disparate networks onto WIN-T, and is recognized by the Army as the lead for both Intelligence (Phase I) and Tele-medicine (Phase II) transport convergence. Henderson has also help to lay the cornerstones for future convergence of the strategic and tactical networks.
"The team is working together to look holistically across WIN-T, PEO C3T and the entire network to introduce highly innovative technology, unify services and reduce complexity where possible," Henderson said.
"A single and unified end to end network will be a stronger, more secure and effective network for Signal Soldiers to manage world-wide. That goal is at the heart of all that we do."
Under his command, his team provides a satellite and line-of-sight modular "tool kit" of network connectivity to enable Commanders to access mission command applications that best support their mission, while reducing size, weight and power (SWaP) for a more agile force.
These capabilities include Enroute Mission Command, which provides early entry units with invaluable in-flight mission command, plane-to-plane and plane-to-ground communications, and situational awareness for the Global Response Force.
He also advanced capability for secure 4G LTE and Secure WiFi, as well as the Disaster Incident Response Emergency Communications Terminal tool suite, which the PdM is fielding to the Army National Guard in support of disaster relief and civil missions.
Under Henderson's leadership, the WIN-T Increment 1 team advanced the capabilities of and conducted multiple risk reduction events for much of the expeditionary portfolio, such as a new high-bandwidth Terrestrial Transmission Line Of Sight radio; the range-extending, high throughput and low latency interim Troposcatter; Commercial Coalition Equipment ; and the Modular Communications Node-Advanced Enclave , which supports intelligence users over the WIN-T network in support of network transport convergence efforts.
All of these commercial hardware solutions leverage the WIN-T network and help to extend the network from home station to the edge of the battlefield, to enable forces to provide mission command and voice video and data capabilities wherever needed. Henderson's efforts are helping the Army provide an integrated, interoperable single network that is modular and flexible in design, and is easy to operate.
"I am proud of Lt. Col. Henderson's extensive acquisition accomplishments and especially of his efforts to help unify the Army's network," said Col. Greg Coile, PM for WIN-T, who attended the ceremony.
"His focus and unwavering professionalism gets things done even when there are significant challenges or complexity, which he handles with ease. His leadership and dedication have enabled the Army to significantly advance expeditionary communications and network modernization in support of our Soldiers and the contingencies around the world."
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