The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation, or NA-80, recently embarked on the second and final phase of a refresh for its Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) air fleet: planes and helicopters the agency uses domestically to gather data about potential or suspected nuclear accidents, incidents and — in a worst case scenario that so far as not come to pass — radiological terror attacks.
This week, the Exchange Monitor spoke with Jay Tilden, NNSA’s associate administrator for counterterrorism and counterproliferation, about how his relatively small office at the semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapons agency went about the fleet refresh. Subscribers can read the full interview in the next issue of of Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, due out this Friday.
Exchange Monitor: What specific capabilities was NEST and NA-80 looking for in its new aircraft?
Jay Tilden: We wanted to make sure these things don’t look like they’re military. We don’t need to be flying the black helicopters of the world UN government over cities. So that’s why we have a very distinctive kind of a schema for the color. That way it’s very clear this is not a military type aircraft.
The fixed wings are already replaced. It’s ergonomically designed and it’s much better, plus modern avionics. We were going to have to upgrade with the modern avionics and that would have been costly.
For the rotary fleet, was there any pushback on choosing the Leonardo AW139 to replace incumbent Bell, as the Air Force also did with its UH-1N fleet?
We got some internal guff about whether it is American made. But it’s built in Philadelphia and well used inside government channels. The Maryland state police helicopters are also an Augusta Westland [now Leonardo Helicopters], so we think it’s a good choice and it is leading to American jobs. We’re adding two additional detectors for a total of six, which means better measurements.
Did your office handle the procurement? Did you have any issues with getting the funding for the recapitalization effort? How does this program stack up against your office’s typical procurement budget?
My office is not even that big in the scheme of things. It’s so funny in the federal government when you tell someone “I don’t run a really big office, it’s only $350 million or so.” We had been getting some squawks from the departmental aviation office. On one hand, they’re saying “you have one of the best fleets.” I think [it received] the [General Services Administration] small aircraft fleet award several times over the last 10 years. On the other hand, the Aviation Safety Office is like, man, your stuff’s getting old. The Hill completely bought in. They support the mission. We got the money we executed on the planes and carried over about $35 million for the helicopters.
