The Aviation Support Equipment program office’s Consolidated Automated Support System Performance-Based Logistics Team has won a 2009 Secretary of Defense Performance-Based Logistics Award.

The trophy was presented to the team for its Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) Oct. 7 at the Aerospace Industries Association Fall Product Support Conference at Hilton Head, S.C.

CASS is the Navy’s standard automatic test system which supports the Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18, AV-8B, EA-6B, E-2C, V-22, H-60 and H-1 aircraft afloat and ashore throughout the world.

The CASS PBL Team is comprised of members from the Naval Inventory Control Point, NAVAIR, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, and Lockheed Martin Simulation and Training Systems, the mainframe CASS prime contractor.

“Our integrated CASS support team, led by Lt. Cmdr. Rick Braunbeck and Cathy Eggles of AIR-6.6, and Christine Rowlands of NAVICP, is totally dedicated to sustaining CASS at the highest levels of readiness. The CASS PBL contract for which the team won the award is a $410 million, seven-year, firm-fixed price vehicle that was awarded last winter,” said Capt. Mike Belcher, the Aviation Support Equipment program manager, PMA-260. “The focus of the CASS PBL is mitigating availability and obsolescence issues of our ageing CASS stations.”

Belcher noted that current availability of CASS in the fleet is well over 90 percent, and that failure rates per CASS station and support costs per station have consistently decreased under the CASS PBL contract which includes an exceptionally successful obsolescence identification and mitigation program.

“I am especially proud of the public-private partnership we have built with Lockheed Martin,” Belcher continued. “It’s working well to keep CASS availability high and ownership costs low, and this significantly helps the fleet warfighter.”

Through the PBL Awards, the Department of Defense recognizes government/industry teams responsible for outstanding achievements in PBL development, implementation and execution. The awards honor outstanding PBL performance in three categories: system level, the sub-system level, and component level. CASS won a System Level Award, which are named in honor of the late Gerald R. "Jerry" Beck. Beck had a long distinguished career as a DoD logistician following years of service as a NAVAIR logistician. Beck was instrumental in establishing the Performance Based Logistics Program and helped initiate the annual Secretary of Defense PBL Awards.

NAVAIR's Aviation Support Equipment Program, PMA-260, manages the procurement, development, fielding and support of Common Support Equipment and Automatic Test Equipment which supports every Type/Model/Series aircraft within the Naval Aviation Enterprise.