The office of the Under Secretary of Defense has awarded Program Executive Office Ammunition at Picatinny two 2015 Department of Defense Value Engineering Achievement Awards during a June 28 ceremony at the Pentagon.

Value Engineering, or VE, is a DOD effort to systematically and creatively analyze the function of items or systems to ensure required functions are achieved at the lowest possible overall cost and their VE procedures have saved the DOD more than $140 million combined.

In the Special award category, the Picatinny team institied these changes:

Elimination of Testing Requirement for the M18A1 Claymore Mine

Function analysis of the Transportation Vibration testing requirement for the M18A1 Claymore Antipersonnel Mine explored the continued need for extensive testing requirements for Claymore mines. By analyzing historical data, engineers were able to determine that some testing requirements for the Claymore were unnecessary and could be eliminated. This reduced the cost and time associated with the previous testing standard. The overall Value Engineering Savings: $49,000.

Clipped Bulk Pack for 5.56 mm pack out

This Value Engineering effort designed and developed the 5.56 mm ammunition Clipped Bulk Pack, an ammunition pack that holds 5.56 mm bullets, to gain significant savings over the current AB57 bandoleer-style pack. A bandoleer is a belt fitted with small pockets or loops for carrying cartridges. The Clipped Bulk Pack eliminates the need for bandoleers and provides for 60 additional rounds per M2A1 metal ammunition container. It is more robust, with longer shelf life than the existing fiberboard commercial pack. The overall Value Engineering Savings: $1.731 million.

Removing the Base Cover Assembly of 120 mm HE Projectile

120 mm High Explosive (HE) Mortar Projectiles previously required a base cover be welded to the aft, or back, of the projectile to avoid a catastrophic failure if there is a defect called a “pipe” in the body. This VE effort eliminated the base cover through an enhanced ultrasonic inspection process that will be able to detect the same “pipe” defect. The overall Value Engineering Savings: $277,000.

For the project/program award they institued the re-use of the 155mm M483A1 shell bodies.

The Project Manager Combat Ammunition Systems won the “project” award for its work developing a process to re-use 155 mm M483A1 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) shell bodies in producing M1123 and M1124 Extended Range IR and VL Illuminating projectiles. This provides the U.S. Soldiers with extended range illumination and an additional 5km of range at a considerable reduced price.

The re-use of the 155mm M483A1 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) shell bodies achieved a net three year savings of $32.197 million.

From left: Kristen Baldwin, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering; Saleem Ghazi, Branch Chief – Smoke/Illumination Mortars/Artillery in Project Manager Combat Ammunition Systems; David Kondas, Senior Project Officer – Smoke/Illumination Mortars/Artillery in PM Combat Ammunition Systems; William Marriott, Deputy to the Commanding General, Aviation and Missile Command. Kondas and Ghazi received the Department of Defense “Project” Value Engineering award during a ceremony June 28. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army)

From left: Kristen Baldwin, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering, Chris Grassano, Chief of Staff for Program Executive Office Ammunition, Barbara Gabbard, Lean Six Sigma Deployment Director for PEO Ammunition, and William Marriott, Deputy to the Commanding General, Aviation and Missile Command. Grassano and Gabbard accepted the Department of Defense “Special” Value Engineering Award on behalf of PEO Ammunition during a ceremony June 28. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army)

For more details, visit www.army.mil.

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