PEO-NAVAL SYSTEMS
The Program Executive Office-Naval Systems (PEO-NS) is the acquisition organization within SOAL that is dedicated to providing the SOF warfighter with operationally effective and sustainable surface and subsurface maritime systems.
PEO-NS manages over $250 million of Major Force Program-11 (MFP-11) dollars over the current future years defense program. The PEO’s MFP-11 management responsibility includes wide latitude of control and decision-making authority for all budget activities, regardless of whether the USSOCOM program is managed within the PEO or by a military department program manager. The PEO’s portfolio includes over 15 surface and undersea acquisition programs.
Surface programs include the MK V Special Operations Craft, Naval Surface Warfare rigid-hull inflatable boat, Special Operations Craft-Riverine, and the Patrol Boat-Light. Subsurface programs include the Advanced SEAL Delivery System, SEAL Delivery Vehicle, Dry Deck Shelter, Swimmer Transport Device, Semi- Autonomous Hydrographic Research Vehicle, Hydrographic Mapping Unit, non-gasoline burning outboard engine, and a variety of related subsystems and pre-programmed product improvement programs.
PEO-NS’s primary customers are the Naval Special Warfare Command and the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command. PEO-NS also supports several foreign military sales customers in conjunction with the Navy’s International Programs Office.
The PEO-NS position is a Navy major command billet coded for an engineering duty officer certified as a level three acquisition professional. This position is currently held by Captain David T. Bishop, U.S. Navy.
All surface programs are managed within the PEO by the Combatant Craft Program Management Office (CCPMO), USSOCOM’s Center of Excellence for all new-start SOF surface combatant craft programs. Captain Pat Sullivan, U.S. Navy, is the CCPMO program manager and is supported by five deputy program managers. CCPMO also has cradle-tograve management responsibility for all Navy SOF legacy combatant craft systems. CCPMO duties include program acquisition strategy and planning; decision risk analysis; scheduling; funding profiles; resource allocation throughout the planning, programming, budgeting and execution system; design and engineering; production; fielding; and systems integration.
The CCPMO also explores the commercial market for new technologies, foreign technologies and non-developmental items for alternatives to current and future acquisitions. The CCPMO staff has the inherent capability to manage systems acquisition as engineering, procurement, program control, configuration, test, manufacturing and integrated logistics support. Currently, the CCPMO is responding to SOF requirements for new, more capable combatant surface craft to replace legacy systems and to meet the demands of the future.
Undersea programs are represented within the PEO-NS office by a mix of military officers and civil servants acting as assistant program executive officers (APEO) who provide direct interface between the designated Navy program managers, the user, and USSOCOM. The majority of undersea warfare programs are managed by program managers within Naval Sea Systems Command (PMS-399 and PMS-NSW) and at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, Fla. As such, the APEO’s primary responsibility is to be the program’s acquisition focal point within the USSOCOM staff. The function of this position is to integrate all activities related to the acquisition of maritime systems. This includes establishing and implementing agreements with services and other organizations supporting special operations acquisitions; integrating systems engineering, testing, logistics and configuration management; planning and directing life cycle management; developing and coordinating requirements, acquisition strategies, and funding profiles; and managing resources and program execution.
In addition to daily program management, one of the major functions of PEO-NS is to provide a quick reaction acquisition capability and interface with other service and government agency organizations in order to fulfill emergent SOF requirements where time, criticality of need and sensitivity indicate that an in-house acquisition approach is most advantageous. Typically, these efforts are managed through the USSOCOM combat mission needs statement requirements process. For less time-sensitive requirements, PEO-NS actively participates in the small business innovative research, advanced concept technology development, and special operations special technology processes, which are administered by the SOAL Directorate of Advanced Technology. To fulfill these requirements, the PEO-NS staff serves as an interface between the end user, doctrinal proponent, developer, test evaluator and the USSOCOM staff.
Although the true measure of a program’s success comes from the end user, earning acquisition awards is a definite plus. Nominated three times, the PEO-NS acquisition team has received the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award twice, one for pioneering a revolutionary test and evaluation method in the Naval Special Warfare rigid-hull inflatable boat program in 1998 and again in 2003 for revolutionary logistics support initiatives in the Special Operations Craft-Riverine program. Both of these CCPMO-managed, combatant craft programs were procured using the streamlined, developmental prototype test/down-select acquisition approach with unprecedented success. As the end user, NAVSPECWARCOM special boat teams received combatant craft that met their operational requirements and significantly enhanced their mission capabilities. ♦