NUWC Division Newport team members win DON Acquisition Excellence Award

Photo By David Stoehr | Meagon Coffey (from left) and Russell Racette III, members of the Undersea Warfare Training Range Team, and employees in Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport’s Ranges, Engineering and Analysis Department, recently won the Department of the Navy Acquisition Excellence Award in the Business Innovation — Transaction or Affordability Focus category.  

NEWPORT, RI, UNITED STATES

09.29.2022

Story by Public Affairs Office 

Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport

NEWPORT, R.I. – Undersea Warfare Training Range (USWTR) Team members Meagon Coffey and Russell Racette III of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport’s Ranges, Engineering and Analysis Department, recently won the 2022 Department of the Navy (DON) Acquisition Excellence Awards (AEA) in the Business Innovation — Transaction or Affordability Focus category.

The award recognizes outstanding individuals and teams who have made exceptional contributions to promote competition and innovation throughout the acquisition lifecycle, ultimately delivering rapid, affordable, high performing capabilities to Naval Warfighters around the globe.

The USWTR Team used “ground-breaking approaches to award a complicated $410 million, 10-year, six range recapitalization and new construction contract,” the award states.

The solicitation called for delivering the second and third increments to an established Acquisition Category IVM Program. This approach also provides the technical data package to enable a recapitalization of the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center range in the Bahamas.

The execution of this contract award involved key stakeholders from Rhode Island, Maryland, Florida, Hawaii, California and Washington. Coordinating a geographically dispersed team was already challenging, but the coronavirus pandemic complicated the matter further. The team took this contract from source selection to full award in just six months while in a full remote work status.

This meant that all the coordination was done through technology and not face-to-face meetings.

Source selection began in January 2021, the contract was awarded in July 2021 and resulted in an estimated cost savings of at least $339 million. “These remarkable schedule efficiencies brought critical test and evaluation training to the fleet much faster than originally planned,” the award states. “By doing so the team’s forward thinking provided a clear and direct benefit to national security objectives, the fleet and warfighter.”

Coffey, a resident of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and Racette, a resident of Newport, Rhode Island, will be honored with the team at the 2022 DON Acquisition Excellence Awards ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on Nov 3.

NUWC Newport is the oldest warfare center in the country, tracing its heritage to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869. Commanded by Capt. Chad Hennings, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher's Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.

Join our team! NUWC Division Newport, one of the 20 largest employers in Rhode Island, employs a diverse, highly trained, educated, and skilled workforce. We are continuously looking for engineers, scientists, and other STEM professionals, as well as talented business, finance, logistics and other support experts who wish to be at the forefront of undersea research and development. Please connect with NUWC Division Newport Recruiting at this site- https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NUWC-Newport/Career-Opportunities/ and follow us on LinkedIn @NUWC-Newport and on Facebook @NUWCNewport.

• Date Taken: 09.29.2022
• Date Posted: 09.29.2022 12:10
• Story ID: 430371
• Location: NEWPORT, RI, US
• Hometown: NEWPORT, RI, US
• Hometown: TIVERTON, RI, US