Without sufficient funds to maintain all 68 CONUS systems, the LMR prod- uct office and its customers, the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command and the U.S. Installation Management Command, had to look for alternative solutions.


THE ARMY’S ‘ACE’ To solve both issues and ensure readi- ness for LMR systems, the product office introduced the Army CONUS Enterprise (ACE) LMR System. ACE consolidates 68 localized LMR core sys- tems into two enterprise LMR systems. Te ACE model provides fully redundant LMR systems throughout CONUS with a core infrastructure hosted at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington and Fort Drum in upstate New York.


Here we come to the acquisition card trick. Te LMR product office designed the ACE acquisition as a limited-source, dual-award contract with both major contractors—Harris and Motorola—sup- plying the primary core for one location and the secondary core for the other loca- tion. Te result? A Motorola primary and Harris secondary at the first location, but a Harris primary and Motorola second- ary at the second. Te ACE LMR system will provide an enterprise-level LMR system while maintaining competition at the installation level on each delivery order for new radios,


towers, dispatch


consoles and other infrastructure. With ACE, both major contractors enjoy the same incentive to compete for every LMR procurement for every Army post, camp and station in CONUS, while the Army reaps the benefits of competition.


LESSONS LEARNED THROUGH IMPLEMENTATION In designing the ACE architecture, the LMR product office developed a new contracting model that may prove useful


THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS


Ralph Edmonds, left, showcases a portion of Fort Belvoir’s LMR equipment to Brig. Gen. Patrick W. Burden, program executive officer for EIS. In 2014, PEO EIS’ LMR product office began developing a plan to address a handful of threats to the readiness of Army LMR systems in the U.S., including a complex requirement, only two suppliers and a shrinking pool of appropriated funds. (Photo by James Christopherson, Project Manager for Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (PM DCATS))


to other network efforts facing challenges with competition. Te product office also learned many valuable lessons that are applicable to any office on any effort.


Challenge 1: Communication No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, and no request for proposal (RFP) survives first contact with industry partners. RFPs are prepared deliberately, thoughtfully and thoroughly, but they represent only the government side of the conversation. Government acquisition teams and industry partners both have phenomenal people with brilliant ideas and different perspectives. Tat often produces different ideas on how to solve the same problem. By communicating first, frequently and openly, government and industry partners can better comple- ment one another's efforts.


When issuing its RFP, the product office was confident that its industry partners would repurpose existing core systems from current installations to the new ACE sites to save on costs. Tey were then shocked to learn through initial industry proposals that none of the fielded cores was technically suitable to handle the vol- ume of traffic required for a regional core. Both government and industry partners were in sync on the big picture, but they found key differences in proposed solutions.


Te product office plans to mitigate con- fusion on task orders for individual site installations by using face-to-face initial proposal meetings with industry to dis- cuss, clarify and shape proposals through dialogue. Rather than asking the com- panies to prepare their proposals in a


ASC.ARMY.MIL 19


ACQUISITION


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