505 CCW contract does more with less Published Dec. 14, 2007 By Maj. Erin Dick 1st SOW Public Affairs HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- Everyone in the military is familiar with the phrase "doing more with less." But one Hurlburt organization has taken this concept to a whole new level, saving the Air Force millions of dollars. The 505th Command Control Wing (505 CCW), working closely with the Air Combat Command Acquisition Management Integration Center (AAC AMIC) and supported by the Air Armament Center with acquisition oversight provided by the Air Force Program Executive Officer for Combat and Mission Support (AFPEO/CM), recently awarded an approximate $135M contract to L-3 Communications Government Services, Inc (L-3 GSI) to provide academic, training and exercise contract support to the wing. The 505 CCW trains nearly 1,600 command and control students each year and provides operational-level through tactical-level continuation training to command and control operators and technicians throughout the world. The contract is the result of combining 10 independent contract task orders with multiple companies into one consolidated contract awarded to L-3 GSI through full and open competition. "Every year we were depending on millions of dollars in fall out money from the Air Force to sustain our critical training programs," said Lt. Col. Berger, 505 CCW Director of Staff. "We knew if we were going to continue to survive as a wing and provide critical command and control capabilities to component and joint force commanders, we were going to have to start working smarter and more efficiently." The effort also helped minimize the constant state of internal competition in which the wing found itself with various contracts coming up for re-negotiation or bidding throughout the year. The cost of maintaining 10 independent task orders to the Air Force was approximately $40M a year. The consolidated approach will now cost the Government approximately $27M a year--a savings of $13M a year or $65M across the life of the 5-year contract. But there is much more to this success story than simply consolidating contracts and saving the Air Force money. "When we sent the request for proposals out to industry, we quite literally reestablished the way we wanted to do business," Colonel Berger said. "We asked the contractors to implement transformational business principles into their bids which would enable the wing to work more efficiently." One example of a transformational business principle is the cross-utilization of resources, which essentially means that people, information and resources can be shared across the "enterprise" and the various components of the wing's mission such as training, exercise planning and execution, and support to command and control experimentation. This was essential for a wing that has three geographically separated groups. "Under our previous structure, training was managed by one contractor and exercises were managed by another," explained Col. Jack Shanahan, commander of the 505th. "There would be times when we needed contractors to work cross-functionally, but they couldn't due to contractual restrictions such as those preventing the sharing of proprietary information. With our new contract all the people and information will be shared." "This consolidation allows us to maximize our output of services, minimize waste and optimize the application of our resources to events and tasks" said Carl Ledford, ACC AMIC Ccontracting Oofficer. But what truly makes this milestone so unique to the 505 CCW and to the Air Force is that the need for change and doing more with less was not mandated from the top down. Instead, the wing decided on it's own to take this initiative so they could continue to survive. "It was a bottom up initiative as opposed to a top down initiative" Mr. Ledford said. "The wing established a contracting office, prepared the request for proposals and conducted the source selection, in majority, on its own." "By the end of the 20th century, the Air Force attained a level of tactical expertise unmatched by any adversary," Colonel Shanahan said. "Tthe 21st century will belong to those who excel at operational-level command and control. We are providing that critical capability. "The joint air and space component commanders need and deserve the best we have to offer. This contract is a major step in the right direction."