Photo By Fox Murray | A collaborative team of government employees and military officers from NAVSUP WSS and...... read more read more
A collaborative team of government employees and military officers from Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support (NAVSUP WSS) and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) received the 2024 Secretary of Defense Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) Award at the subsystem level. The award recognizes the team’s outstanding life cycle product support for the Navy’s Stores Management System (SMS) and Stores Management Upgrade System (SMUG).
Lisa Smith, deputy assistant secretary of defense for product support, presented the team with the award Aug. 25, 2025, in Philadelphia.
The award honors teams that demonstrate innovative and effective sustainment solutions, providing warfighters with exceptional support and improved mission lethality. The team was recognized for its long-term success in managing a complex, cost-effective contract that has set the standard for subsystem logistics support for over 24 years.
The SMS/SMUG systems are critical components installed on the Navy and Marine Corps’ F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet, AV-8B Harrier, and H-1 Viper/Venom aircraft fleets, including those operated by the Royal Australian Air Force. These systems serve as the vital interface between the pilot and the aircraft’s weapon systems, allowing for the monitoring, selection, launch, and jettison of munitions.
Under the Firm-Fixed Price PBL contract, the integrated team has achieved dramatic and sustained improvements in fleet readiness. For instance, the team increased materiel availability from a pre-PBL rate of 65-75% to a sustained rate of over 99%, filled 99% of all requisitions within one business day against a required target of 92%, and supported 234,914 flight hours across more than 1,000 aircraft in the year leading up to the team’s nomination, successfully filling 1,614 requisitions to keep these critical platforms mission-ready.
The PBL contract structure incentivizes GE Aviation to manage the entire supply chain, including obsolescence, reliability improvements and configuration management, leading to significant cost avoidance for the Navy, estimated at $5.1 million in the latest contract analysis.
The partnership’s success stems from a shared focus on readiness. This alignment allows the team to collaboratively address challenges, from managing aging test equipment to resolving complex engineering issues. For example, the team identified and corrected an electrical short in a test cable that was causing a high failure rate in Station Control Units. By updating fleet procedures and technical manuals, the team significantly increased the component's reliability, reducing long-term costs and ensuring parts availability.
The long-standing SMS/SMUG PBL contract has served as a foundational model for numerous other successful logistics contracts across the Department of Defense.
NAVSUP WSS provides the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and allied forces the program and supply support for the weapon systems that keep naval forces mission ready. With locations in Philadelphia; Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; Norfolk, Virginia; and Tucson, Arizona, NAVSUP WSS manages operational readiness for almost 300 deployable ships, 92 submarines, and 3,700 aircraft worldwide.
| Date Taken: | 08.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.26.2025 11:32 |
| Story ID: | 546499 |
| Location: | PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 428 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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