Four Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport employees recently received Department of the Navy (DON) Civilian Service Awards. Patrick Kelley, who recently retired from the Undersea Warfare Combat Systems Department, won a Department of the Navy (DON) Superior Civilian Service Award, the second highest honorary civilian award bestowed by the U.S. Navy. Dr. Anthony Ruffa of the Division’s Technology Office, Daniel Reardon of the Sensors and Sonar Systems Department, and John de Ciutiis of the Contracts Department, all won DON Meritorious Civilian Service Awards, the third highest honorary civilian award.
Kelley, of Newport, Rhode Island, received a Superior Civilian Service Award for his leadership and achievements as director of cybersecurity for Undersea Warfare (USW) Systems from August 2016 through November 2020. He led a series of training and Tactics, techniques and procedure development efforts, including the execution of five exercises on board U.S. Navy submarines. This resulted in the development of at-sea incident response procedures and associated training material related to the Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical System. Kelley, along with PMS 450 and PMS 397 offices, established the Virginia/Columbia Cybersecurity Developmental Test Program and supported a sustained focus on the development of objective quality evidence regarding cybersecurity risk characterization. Kelley retired in December 2020, following a notable 36-year Navy career.
Ruffa, of Hope Valley, Rhode Island, received a Meritorious Civilian Service Award or his contributions as an organizational resource and mentor from January 2008 to August 2020. He is the leading Division Newport and a top Navy patent holder with 71 issued patents. He served as the director of innovation within the Division Newport Technology Office, including serving as manager of the Office of Naval Research In-House Laboratory Independent Research (ILIR) and Independent Applied Research (IAR) Programs. As the USW Weapons, Vehicles and Defensive Systems Department research and technology coordinator, Ruffa helped to develop high-quality proposals for ILIR/IAR Section 219 basic and applied research and transition, strategic initiatives, the new professional development program, exploratory concept development, small business innovation research, Technology Insertion Program for savings, and others. During his tenure, 75 of 200 proposals were funded, leading to significant research, development, and subsequent transitions.
Reardon, of Berkley, Massachusetts, received a Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his contributions as the AN/SQQ-89 A(V)15 DDG-51 shipbuilding and conversion baseline lead from January 2018 through June 2020. Delivering a detailed evaluation of the SPQ-9B radar fielding plan, he highlighted the value it adds to USW, allowing PEO IWS 5 to identify a redundant interface which could lead to simplification of the design. In 2018, Reardon led a lean analysis to avoid large cost overruns from commercial shipyards during the OK-410(V)4 system and multi-functional towed array installation. His efforts improved visibility into the shipyard’s level of effort, reduced installation rework errors, and identified the cause of each cost overrun. Using data from previous installations, the shipyard bid was analyzed to be approximately 34 percent over the highest expected estimate, and resulted in a revised bid with an avoidance of $3.1 million of cost.
De Ciutiis, of Westerly, Rhode Island, received a Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his performance as the Division Newport Contracting Officer Representative (COR) Program certification manager from October 2016 to November 2020. He provided extensive training to more than 1,000 CORs and contracting officers at NUWC Division Keyport and at the Naval Surface Warfare Centers in Dahlgren, Virginia; Panama City, Florida; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He developed the Joint Appointment Module/Surveillance and Performance Monitoring Module Engineering Change Proposal, which will provide a reporting mechanism that will benefit the entire Navy. Under de Ciutiis’ leadership, the completion and submission rate for COR reports across all departments increased from 84% in fiscal year 2016 to 93% in the last six months of calendar year 2019.
Kelley, Reardon and Ruffa were recognized at a ceremony with Technical Director Ron Vien on Feb. 22, and de Ciutiis was honored in an earlier ceremony.
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