YUMA PROVING GROUND, Arizona – The Yuma Test Center (YTC) at the Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) recently created three new positions for Cross Functional Team (CFT) integrators.
YTC has an integrator for Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF), Next Generation Combat Vehicles (NGCV) and Future Vertical Lift (FVL). These CFTs, tested at YPG, are part of the Army’s modernization priorities.
The three integrators, who were all hired in late 2020 and early 2021, are all breaking new ground – Steve Flores for LRPF, Justin Croutch for ATCO and Jake Obradovich for NGCV.
“We have the option to make them what we think they need to be,” said Flores, who previously worked as head of the artillery department in the ammunition and weapons department, about the position.
“We’re trying to develop this position as we hold it,” added Coutch, the former head of the Engineering Support Branch.
You may be wondering what exactly does an integrator do? Obradovich explains, “The integrator, no pun intended, integrates all of the various CFT efforts supported by YPG into one clear picture for the YPG leadership.”
YTC at YPG supports six of the eight CFTs that make up the Army’s modernization priorities. Every CFT has milestones and goals to meet, which means that countless tests are performed daily by numerous different YTC test officers.
“We’ll help bridge the gap between today’s test and the way it supports the bigger picture of the army,” explains Flores.
CFT integrators have an overview of the entire modernization effort for which they are responsible; not just a test or two. That way, they can keep track of how the CFT’s overall efforts are progressing. Integrators can stay in sync with the testing programs to determine if the schedules and milestones are on track, identify trends and assess their importance, and ensure the overall task is being accomplished.
Obradovich said, “I am working to leverage the breadth of NGCV support in CASD, incorporate it, understand the details, make assessments, and evaluate this information. This allows a unified message to be conveyed to the YPG leadership to provide a concise assessment of the programmatic issues. This information enables an early assessment of the observed problems and enables the YPG management to pass the information on to ATEC and to inform senior executives in test programs at an early stage. ”
YPG is a development test center, which means that in addition to testing field devices, its employees also test development devices. This is where the expertise of the integrators comes into play.
“YPG tests every day and we’re good at it, but what we’re doing with the upgrade is sort of a revision of our testing procedures. With every system we go to the limits of all raw materials at YPG. So it will be the role of these positions to figure out how we are going to do that. Which instrumentation, which areas, which preparations for testing things that we’ve never tested or that we can’t understand because we’ve never heard of them, ”explains Coutch.
In addition to the concept for the administration of these new tests for the industrial partners who work with YPG, integrators provide them with a central contact person.
“For the ATCO perspective, we are still in the middle of building these relationships and there are already people who are starting to contact us. I think it will be helpful for them to have a connection between their testing needs and the way YPG will implement them, ”said Coutch.
| Recording date: | 05/17/2021 |
| Release Date: | 05/27/2021 10:04 AM |
| Story ID: | 397239 |
| Place: | YUMA PROVING BODEN, AZ, USA |
| Web views: | 20th |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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This work, Yuma Proving Ground Integrators: Breaking New Ground, by Ana Henderson, identified by Divids, must comply with the restrictions specified on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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