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Leaders Corner |
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Rick Yuse
President,
Raytheon Technical Services Company |
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Rick Yuse wears two hats at Raytheon. He is president of Raytheon Technical Services Company (RTSC) LLC, and he is Raytheon Chairman and CEO Bill Swanson's appointed enterprise leader for Mission Support, one of Raytheon's four core markets. Technology Today recently spoke with Yuse about both of these challenging roles and the increasing reliance on technology by our Mission Support and technology customers. Yuse brings with him a unique perspective, as he was an internal customer for RTSC's Mission Support services when he was a program manager at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS). Yuse joined Raytheon in 1976 and has held positions ranging from systems architecture and design to flight test director and program manager. Before being appointed RTSC president, Yuse was vice president of Integrated Air Defense for Raytheon at IDS, where he was responsible for air defense programs.
TT: Raytheon has adopted Mission Support
as one of its core growth markets. For a
company that is largely identified as an
engineering and technology company,
why is Mission Support so important?
RY: One key element of Mission Support is
the lifecycle support of fielded Raytheon
systems. Mission Support is about maintaining
equipment with the Raytheon name on
it — keeping it operational and ready for
the warfighter. We provide Mission Support
solutions for deployed systems, but Mission
Support starts as an integral part of the design
phase. To the extent that our engineers
provide for logistics support and maintenance
and usage requirements, the more efficient
our systems will be to maintain in the
field, which ultimately will enhance their
performance and reputation and maintain
the 'no doubt' customer trust that we're all
so proud of. And with leaner budgetary
days ahead, every dollar that our customers
don't have to earmark for support of existing
systems frees up funding for upgrades
and new technology.
TT: How does Mission Support differ from
Mission Assurance?
RY: Mission Assurance is the personal and
collective commitment of Raytheon and our
employees to ensure that our customers
have no doubt about our products and services.
Our solutions must work for the customer,
the first time and every time. Mission
Assurance permeates the entire life cycle of
our deliverables. The goals of Mission Support
are ensuring that systems in the field operate
failure-free; that if a failure occurs, it's
detected as quickly as possible; and that the
repair can be made promptly, all while minimizing
the personnel, assets and supplies
that must be dedicated to these tasks.
These goals are tightly aligned with
achieving 'no doubt' Mission Assurance.
TT: Mission Support across Raytheon and
RTSC as a business has demonstrated strong
growth recently. How do you see the
Obama administration's priorities, and the
general economic condition, impacting that
growth going forward?
RY: We see Mission Support services as a
potential hedge against the impact of possible
declines in the research and development
(R&D) and procurement budgets. The
administration has indicated that it will be
looking closely at large weapons development
programs, particularly those that are
not performing to cost and schedule parameters.
This means that legacy systems will be
fielded for longer periods. That's an opportunity
for Mission Support in terms of
sustainment and an opportunity to perhaps
upgrade some of these systems with
reliability or capability enhancements.
TT: But Mission Support is more than
product support. It includes other support
items such as training and professional and
technical services. What is the outlook for
these kinds of services?
RY: Yes, Mission Support is a very broad
market space encompassing product support
as well as a variety of outsourced services.
Training, for instance, has been an area
of strategic focus and growth in Raytheon,
led by RTSC. In the past couple of years, we
have grown to become one of the largest
providers of outsourced training in the
world, with significant program wins such as
the U.S. Army Warfighter FOCUS contract,
and the FAA's Air Traffic Control Optimum
Training Solution (ATCOTS) program.
ATCOTS delivers training to the FAA's air
traffic controllers, and Warfighter FOCUS
integrates three previously separate training
domains — live, virtual and constructive.
RTSC and its team of subcontractors deliver
integrated, turnkey, lifecycle training services
and support to warfighters at 500 U.S.
Army locations worldwide. Training is an
area of the military budget we see as
holding up well. Training is an underlying
element of readiness, whether we are
talking about soldiers, air traffic controllers,
or employees at commercial companies.
TT: Do you see technology playing a larger
role in Mission Support?
RY: Since 9/11, the United States has been
in a period of military readiness at virtually
any cost. But now, almost eight years later,
two major factors have altered this environment:
the priorities of the new administration
and the economic crisis in America.
Our customers are signaling that we are entering
a new era characterized as the right
readiness at the right cost. So because
budgets will be tightening in the years
ahead, our customers are demanding innovative,
lower-cost solutions requiring us to
put the "tech" back in technical services.
TT: Can you provide an example?
RY: Anyone associated with supporting our
systems knows that it's not your father's logistics
any more. Today, customers don't just
want to be assured that a particular system
will work when needed. They also want to
be able to predict when it will fail, be able
to track the parts needed across an integrated
global supply chain, and understand
this across all equipment in the battlespace.
This is what we call precision logistics. This
takes logistics and maintenance planning
past a purely statistical approach and into
the realm of real-time understanding of
each unit in a fielded population.
Precision logistics begins with embedded
sensors and built-in tests that provide timely
and specific information about the state of a
unit. To carry this concept to the next level,
we can put these sensors on the network
and gather real-time information about the
state of the fleet. For example, take something
as simple as the Humvee. It has about
40 embedded sensors, and there are
125,000 fielded Humvees. We can generate
quite a bit of information on the state of the
fleet from that. Not only do we have the
state of each unit, but also the necessary
information for identifying failure trends,
subcomponent life cycles and other critical
operational health parameters.
TT: How can Raytheon apply innovation to
Mission Support?
RY: It's important to remember that innovation
comes in many forms. In Mission
Support, we can innovate with technologies
to deliver more efficient training, smoother
and more affordable logistics, and more reliable
products. But we also can be innovative
in how we deliver services to our customers.
And that's something that we are working
on as a company right now.
We have a cross-company team that has
been looking at alternate business models
for lifecycle support, including next-generation
performance-based logistics, and how
we might make better use of public–private
partnerships. The group will deliver recommendations,
perhaps as a part of the
Mission Support strategy, this summer
TT: How do you see technology playing a
factor in the growth of RTSC?
RY: We strive to provide innovative solutions
for our customers. We do not of
course invest as much in R&D as other
Raytheon businesses, but we do reach back
to the rest of Raytheon to both leverage
technology and access domain expertise.
Our engineers are adept at applying existing
technology to problems, and they do so in
an innovative and cost-effective manner.
Applying the right technology combined
with ready access to domain expertise
makes us more attractive to our
customer base.
TT: Raytheon is looking at growing its
international business. How do you see
international Mission Support growing?
RY: The international market for Mission
Support is estimated at about $30 billion a
year and is forecast to continue to grow at a
modest rate, perhaps equal to or slightly
faster than the U.S. market. As a company,
we are pursuing several interesting international
Mission Support opportunities.
Raytheon Australia has two significant outsourced
training opportunities in its five-year
plan; Raytheon Systems Limited in the
United Kingdom has significant logistics and
training opportunities in its plan. RTSC is
pursuing training opportunities in Middle
East, and of course opportunities with the
other Raytheon businesses supporting their
fielded systems. With the right focus and
investment, we can significantly grow our
international Mission Support business.
TT: Given your success rising through the
engineering ranks to a business leadership
role, what advice would you give new engineers
just starting their careers at Raytheon?
RY: I've always enjoyed architecting, designing
and fielding large complex systems
ranging from Cobra Dane to the Aegis and
THAAD weapons systems to the U.S. missile
defense system. As such I've been intimately
involved with both the design and fielding
of many of the systems Raytheon has produced.
One effect of this is that I've had the
opportunity to work and live in some of the
world's, let's say, more out of the way locations.
But more importantly, I have had the
opportunity to be involved in all aspects of
these programs. I have been involved from
the proposal and concept definition phases;
to detailed design, manufacturing, unit-level
and system-level testing; and finally fielding
and system sell-off. I have also had the opportunity
to work with some of the best and
brightest folks in our industry. I believe that
exposure to all phases of a program provides
you with valuable knowledge and
insight from an engineering, business and
customer relations viewpoint. That's otherwise
difficult to acquire.
So my advice? Enjoy what you do. Don't be
afraid to take the hard assignments and
take every opportunity to learn as much
from the program you're supporting, and
the people who are leading it, as you can.
You'll find that here at Raytheon, we're very
fortunate to have, no matter the discipline
— from engineering to program management
and business leadership — some of
the best people our industry has to offer.
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