Representatives from the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville (Huntsville Center) Ordnance and Explosives (OE) and Contracting Directorates spoke to more than 30 members of the National Association of Ordnance Contractors (NAOC) during their mid-year board of director’s meeting in Huntsville, Alabama, June 8.
Betina Johnson, OE Military Munitions Design Center chief; Suzanne Wear, OE contracting chief; and Ashley Roeske, OE project manager, provided briefs for the group and fielded questions from NAOC members.
NAOC is the industry trade association representing companies performing munitions response and related services including: site characterization and remediation; engineering and geophysical services; technology development; GIS mapping; laboratory analysis and equipment sales.
Huntsville Center’s Military Design Center works in conjunction with local Corps districts to safely eliminate or reduce risks from ordnance, explosives and recovered chemical warfare materiel.
Johnson said it’s important for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Huntsville Center to engage with NAOC since the organizations’ members collaborate in the development and application of military munitions response technology and execution of cleanup programs.
“NAOC is instrumental in ensuring federal government policy associated with any type of military munitions response is conveyed to its membership and throughout the industry so we can all be on the same page in how we execute our programs,” Johnson said.
Johnson said since USACE is a premier organization that supports the use of small businesses and maximizes their opportunities to participate in procurements, NAOC’s enhanced membership benefits are instrumental in assisting small and upstart businesses connected to the military munitions response industry.
“NAOC membership not only helps these smaller businesses find work and helps them understand the complexity of the programs, but it also helps USACE reach its goals set for working with small business which in turn strengthens our nation’s economic development,” she said.
Johnson’s overview included an update of current Huntsville Center projects and touched on potential opportunities, future initiatives and current challenges regarding the Center’s military munitions program. She also provided tips to ensure enriched relationships between contractors and the federal government.
Following Johnson, Wear briefed the audience regarding USACE contracting and Army acquisition process, strategy, plans and potential long-and short-term policy changes.
Roeske ended the hour-long session by providing an overview of Redstone Arsenal’s installation restoration program and the planning considerations, projected execution schedule and potential contracting mechanisms associated with the project.
Kyra Donnel, NAOC vice president, said the representatives attending the meeting are primarily business managers for companies in the munitions response services, and they all have interest in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ munitions projects and appreciate periodic industry assessments and recommendations by Huntsville Center personnel.
“They (NAOC members) are looking to get information on the good the bad and the ugly to make improvements, and the (Huntsville Center) briefs certainly helped with that. However, their primary interest is in procurements as they spend a lot of time and energy on submitting proposals; so there is a lot of attention on timing and value of future projects,” Donnel said.