Virginia class attack submarine — on track to deliver in 2004: Program manager interviews Navy Rear Adm. Paul Sullivan - Sel - Navy Acquisition - United States - Interview

Program Manager, Nov-Dec, 2001 by Collie J. Johnson

In the world of military program managers, Navy Rear Adm. (Sel) Paul Sullivan is an anomaly. In fact, he may just be one of the Navy's longest serving program managers. Where most military program managers serve three to four years, Sullivan has now been an ACAT I program manager for six years. He has managed the Virginia Class Attack Submarine project for three years. And before that, he managed the canceled Seawolf project for three and a half years. That's six years of managing an ACAT I program -- years filled with briefings, milestones, negotiations, contract management, reporting, budgeting, scheduling, and testing -- years that ultimately add up to a whole lot of unrelenting pressure and stress.

The Right Elan for the Right Job

A look at his bio, however, reveals why DoD has left him on the job for so long. He's probably the best qualified man in the nation to manage the design and construction of what will surely become the world's most advanced attack submarine. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with a master's in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and the advanced degree of Ocean Engineer, DoD nominated and sponsored Sullivan as an Associate Professor of Naval Architecture at MIT. There he taught the Naval Ship Design sequence of courses, and supervised numerous Navy students in their ship design projects and thesis work.

Soon to be promoted, Sullivan has been assigned as the Deputy Commander for Integrated Warfare Systems, Naval Sea Systems Command. He leaves his successor, Navy Capt. John Heffron, a program that is on track, reasonably on cost, and on schedule.

How did he do it? By taking the lessons learned from another vessel, the Seawolf, which was discontinued after production of only three ships; expanding on its design, maximizing stealth, surveillance capabilities, and special warfare enhancements; and managing design and construction of a new, affordable yet potent submarine that is on track to deliver in 2004.

He would tell you any success he's enjoyed is due to endurance and being forthright enough to "tell it like it is." But that's only part of the story His success is due in no small part to the fact that he is, quite simply, the right man, at the right time, in the right place, for the right job.

Program Manager recently interviewed Sullivan to bring our readers the program management perspective on a project that will affect how the Department of Defense conducts submarine operations and warfare for years to come.

Q

Before the Virginia Class, you were building an advanced attach submarine called the Seawolf -- a program you also managed. Why was the Seawolf canceled?

A

The Seawolf was canceled due to very high cost. It was a very good submarine; I was the Seawolf program manager before I was the Virginia program manager, so I'm partial to that ship too. But, the Seawolf was cancelled in an era where the Soviet Union was putting out a new class of submarine almost every year, and their "quieting" was getting markedly better very rapidly At that point, in the early 80s when the Seawolf program was put together, they had almost 400 submarines. The Seawolf was to go through, search at a very high rate of speed, and go after their SSBNs and their Bastions.

When that mission became de-emphasized at the end of the Cold War and all the other submarine missions came back as a more balanced mission (suite) as opposed to specific "go after SSBNs of the other side," the impetus for such an expensive, high-powered submarine was less. And I think when the Administration at the time reviewed it, they decided it wasn't worth the cost to the country to go build 29 snips in that class. So they cut it all the way back to one, and then restored the second ship and finally the third ship.

We had two shipbuilders, each of which had backlogs in excess of 10 submarines on their books in 1990-1991, and they were looking at radically downsizing the shipyards and potentially going out of business, or at least one of them. In that environment, we realized we had to review not only what the submarine looked like, but also the process by which we built submarines.

Facing a potentially seriously low production rate, we had to go put together a submarine program that maintained as much combat capability as we possibly could, in particular stealth, but was affordable to the country so that we could build enough of them to eventually replace the Los Angeles Class. That's the whole impetus for the Virginia Class.

I went through DSMC's Program Management Course in the spring of 1994. From there I went to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, but was pulled out after only seven months to go run the Seawolf program. The Seawolf is very near and dear to my heart. I was the deputy ship design manager as a lieutenant commander, so I actually was heavily involved in the design of the ship. And then to come back and deliver it years later as the program manager was a real eye opener.