Recognizing Excellence at DMC 2022: The Defense Manufacturing Technology Achievement Award

Established in 1999, the Defense Manufacturing Technology Achievement Awards (DMTAA) are sponsored by the Joint Defense Manufacturing Technology Panel (JDMTP), and are awarded annually to individuals from government, industry and academia for remarkable technical accomplishments in projects that advance the vision of the Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) Program.
The DoD ManTech vision, as reflected in the recently released DoD ManTech Five Year Strategic Plan, is to achieve a responsive, world-class manufacturing capability to affordably and rapidly meet warfighter needs throughout the defense system life cycle, within the Defense Industrial and Organic Base.
The JDMTP expanded the DMTAA criteria in 2017 to encompass five individual categories: Technology Enabler, Cost Reduction, Rate or Safety Improvement, Enhancing Military Capability, Readiness Improvement, and Supply Chain Improvement. This has been the ongoing structure of the awards and is how teams submit their projects for consideration based on the category their project most closely relates to.
The JDMTP Principals had the pleasure to evaluate a total of seventeen submissions for this year’s awards. Nominees were evaluated based on three criteria: manufacturing technology achievement, transition/implementation outlook, and potential and/or realized benefits. JDMTP Chair, Neil Graf, as well as the other Principals representing Army, Navy, Airforce, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Defense Logistics Agency were very encouraged by the overall quality of the submissions and excited for the benefits to our Warfighters.
After deliberation, the JDMTP selected a total of six individual awards across the categories that they felt best demonstrated outstanding performance in executing and delivering ManTech solutions to the DoD. In addition, the Principals believed that the competition was so close that it was warranted to award a select few honorable mentions at this year’s award ceremony.
Awarded at the Defense Manufacturing Conference (DMC) in Tampa, Florida this December the JDMTP was honored to recognize the following projects as DMTAA recipients and honorable mentions:
Winners

• Category: Technology Enabler
  • Organization: Navy ManTech
  • Project Title: Digital Data-Next Generation Measurement/Locating Tools
  • Team Members

• Paul Huang: ONR
• Marty Ryan: NSAM
• Bobby Mashburn: NASM
• Scott Truitt: NASM
• Dick Tiano: NASM
• Carrie Callahan: GDBIW
• Dave Heath: GDBIW
• Heidi Preston: GDEB BIW
• John Lovezzola: GDEB

 

• Category: Cost Reduction/Rate or Safety Improvement
  • Organization: Air Force ManTech
  • Project Title: Composite Laser Ablation Surface Preparation (CLASP)
  • Team Members

• Adam Hicks: AFRL/RXM
• Angie Babian: AFRL
• Kara Storage: AFRL/RXS
• Tara Storage: AFLCMC
• Andy Magee: AFLCMC
• Jared Speltz: UDRI
• Mike Pratt: UDRI
• Corey Kondash: UDRI
• Erinn Sloan: Northrop Grumman
• Scott Gillette: Northrop Grumman

 

• Category: Enhancing Military Capability
  • Organization: Air Force ManTech
  • Project Title: Title III Gallium Nitride (GaN) Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Production Initiative
  • Team Members

• John Blevins: AFRL/RXM
• Mike Borkowski: Raytheon
• Istvan Rodriguez: Raytheon
• Ron Gyurcsik: Raytheon
• Chris MacDonald: Raytheon
• Ken Wilson: Raytheon
• Raj Rajendran: Raytheon
• David Fletcher: Raytheon
• Bill Davis: Raytheon
• Bruce Knop: Maunder & Associates

 
 

• Category: Readiness Improvement
  • Organization: Air Force ManTech
  • Project Title: Virtual Part Repair Programming for Robotic Thermal Spray Applications
  • Team Members

• Harry Pierson: AFRL/RXM
• Nihad Alfaysale: AFRL/RXM
• Shane Groves: WR-ALC
• Chris Adams: ARM Institute
• Andy Strat: Titan Robotics
• Alex Kingler: Titan Robotics
• Stuart Lawrence: Titan Robotics
• Jiong Tang: University of Connecticut

 

• Category: Supply Chain Improvement
  • Organization: OSD ManTech
  • Project Title: Scalability and Production of Magnesium Oxide (MgO) Binder Replacement for Thermal Batteries
  • Team Members

• Dr. Giuseppe L. Di Benedetto: DEVCOM
• Samuel Stuart: NSWC
• Lauren Morris: DEVCOM
• Richard Dratler: DEVCOM
• Dr. Sean Rayman: AFLCMC
• Ken Dettman: GTS
• Mary Hendrickson: GTS
• Ed Plichta: GTS
• Qynergy Corporation Members

 

• Category: Supply Chain Improvement
  • Organization: OSD ManTech
  • Project Title: Manufacturing of Precursor Foamable Celluloid Materials
  • Team Members

• Viral Panchal: DEVCOM
• Chandrark Patel: DEVCOM
• Mark Johnson: DEVCOM
• Dale Conti: DEVCOM
• Michael Caltagirone: DEVCOM
• Ming-Wan Young: Polymer Processing Institute
• Niloufar Faridi: Polymer Processing Institute
• Etienne Comtois: General Dynamics
• Morgane Massart: General Dynamics
• Jean-Christophe St-Charles: General Dynamics

Honorable Mentions

• Category: Cost Reduction/Rate or Safety Improvement
  • Organization: Navy ManTech
  • Project Title: Diagnostic Monitoring of Equipment and Capacity Planning
  • Team Members

• Led by Paul Huang, Program Officer for iMAST and NSAM, with team members representing:
  • Office of Naval Research (ONR)
  • Penn State Applied Research Laboratory (iMAST/ARL)
  • General Dynamics Electric Boat
  • General Dynamics Electric Boat- Maintenance Team
  • New England Controls

 

• Category: Enhancing Military Capability
  • Organization: Army ManTech
  • Project Title: Advanced Manufacturing for Digital Sensors (Digital Pilotage)
  • Team Members

• Led by Tyler Anderson, Division Chief – Electro-Optic Component Division, US Army C5ISR Center RTI, with team members representing:
  • US Army C5ISR Center RTI
  • US Army PdM Ground Sensors
  • Senseeker Engineering
  • L3 Harris
  • Leonardo DRS
  • Raytheon Vision Systems

 

• Category: Supply Chain Improvement
  • Organization: DLA ManTech
  • Project Title: Additive Manufacturing for the UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter Fuel Elbow
  • Team Members

• Led by Jeffrey Gaddes, Supervisory General Engineer- US Army DEVCOM Aviation and Missile Center, with team members representing:
  • Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center (DEVCOM AvMC) ManTech
  • Utility Helicopters Program Management Office (PM-UH)
  • National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM)
  • Redstone Test Center (RTC)
  • Environmental and Component Test Directorate (ECTD)
  • Component Test and Analysis Division (ECL)
  • Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Lab (PSU ARL)
  • The Barnes Global Advisors