HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Hanscom Air Force Base personnel are nominated for the 2024 Defense Acquisition Awards at a ceremony later this year.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center nominees who won at the Headquarters Air Force level include two individuals, and one division stationed at Hanscom.
Katherine Jeffery, cost analyst for Electronic System’s Theater Battle Control Division, and Capt. Nicholas Blessing, acquisition program manager for Kessel Run, received nominations for the Defense Acquisition Individual Achievement Award.
The Theater Battle Control Division at Hanscom AFB was nominated for the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award, the highest award in the Department of Defense for acquisition teams.
“The men and women in our division are well deserving of this award,” Gina Hubbard, deputy division chief, Theater Battle Control, said regarding the Packard nomination. “We have delivered meaningful capabilities to the operational community with both tactical and strategic impacts across the globe that include significant software upgrades along with new high-definition cameras and advanced sensor systems; command and control upgrades for our tactical control party warfighters; key acquisition strategies in collaboration with foreign partners for homeland defense; successful testing of an innovative, long-range radar; and high frequency global communications activities supporting Air Force and Navy operations.”
The Defense Acquisition Awards represents the Air Force, Army, Navy, defense agencies and field activities. Winners will be honored in December at a ceremony hosted by the Defense Acquisition University located in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Jeffery, the branch cost lead, was nominated in business cost estimating, while Blessing was nominated in acquisition security.
Blessing, an Air Operation Center cyber team lead, started at Kessel Run in June 2023. He was nominated after leading a 20-member team responsible for detecting, prioritizing and eliminating vulnerabilities to harden the cyber security baseline defending 22 AOCs. The captain guided cyber risk management framework for the $1.3 billion AOC 10.1 weapon system, responsible for providing command and control warfighting capabilities globally across 11 combatant commands.
This ensured around-the-clock operational support and requirements in coordination with Headquarters Air Force and Air Combat Command.
“I am excited and honored by this recognition and very appreciative of my leadership at Kessel Run for nominating me for this award and their continued guidance and support,” Blessing said. “I was very fortunate to have a great team around me who was (and still are) committed to the mission and work extremely hard to provide secure capabilities for the warfighter.”
Jeffery, cost lead for Homeland Over-The-Horizon Radar in the Theater Battle Control Division, distinguished herself as an outstanding cost analyst by developing several quick turn estimates used by HLD OTHR to support the service acquisition executive’s budget and cost risk decision and acquisition strategy. This resulted in the establishment of way ahead options for the program office.
Jeffery rapidly synthesized the HLD OTHR service cost position into a $3.8 billion estimate, with defined categories and accurate traceability measures. This level of detail allowed senior leadership the ability to follow the nuances of the cost estimate in a way that was easy to understand and present at the SAE levels.
She also led funding drills to determine affordability of executing the HLD OTHR winter study through Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory to provide data on performance of the OTHR system in northern latitudes during winter. Jeffery actively discussed the details on this data so she could apply the appropriate cost inputs into her estimate.
“Ms. Jeffery exemplifies the core values of what it means to be an outstanding cost analyst,” Karen Mungal, division cost chief, Theater Battle Control, and Jeffrey’s supervisor, said. “She is driven, hard-working and laser focused on everything she does.
“We are all very proud of her recognition at the Air Force level highlighting her dedication and continuous diligence to cost estimating.”
The Defense Acquisition Awards presents five annual awards representing 23 separate categories, recognizing individual and team accomplishments that advance the national defense strategy and support DOD priorities through excellence in acquisition.
The DOD’s acquisition workforce comprises nearly 162,000 civilian and military professionals. Their work is considered critical to building enduring advantages for the warfighter as the department continues to innovate and modernize.