DAGR Program a Winner for Rockwell

Coralville Location Delivers 300,000th DAGR

By Dave DeWitte The Gazette

Rockwell Collins employees here don't have to be told how important their work is to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they were reminded Thursday by someone who's seen it firsthand.

Col. Dorothy Taneyhill, U.S. Army project manager for navigation systems, put it this way:

"Three hundred thousandth DAGR — "hooah!" Taneyhill said.

"Hoo-ah!" responded nearly 200 Rockwell Collins employees.

Taneyhill was at Rockwell Collins' Coralville plant for a ceremony commemorating its delivery of the 300,000th DAGR, which is the standard GPS receiver used by U.S. military forces.

The units provide highly accurate location, direction and time information.

Taneyhill, after many visits to Iraq, realizes how valuable that is to soldiers in the field.

"It is greatly important to keeping them going in the right direction," Taneyhill said. "Some of those sandstorms are incredible out there, and you don't always know where you're going."

Production of DAGRs provides employment for about 300 Iowans at Rockwell Collins locations in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Rockwell Collins recently received a $450 million contract to continue producing DAGRs for the U.S. Air Force GPS Wing through 2016.

Bruce King, general manager of Rockwell Collins' surface solutions business, said nobody expected the production of the DAGR to reach 300,000 when the first units were delivered in May 2004.

"We expected to produce 10,000-12,000 units, and cap it around 100,000 units," King said.

Prolonged military engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq have kept demand for the DAGR high. In addition to being used in stand-alone fashion as a location and direction-finder, it is often hooked up to munitions or other equipment to provide vital location, time and direction data.

Taneyhill said the future of the Army's GPS program will focus more on "embedded" systems, which are actually built into the munition or other system.

For the present, the DAGR is getting the job done.

"We're committed to adapting and evolving and enhancing the DAGR," King said. He added that today's DAGR has been enhanced from the original version introduced five years ago, while the cost has gone down.

King acknowledged that GPS offerings in the commercial market have overtaken the DAGR on some levels.

"Today there are hundreds of commercial-grade GPS units available that have caught up and passed the DAGR," King said. He said commercial grade materials and equipment "just won't cut it," however, when it comes to our nation's soldiers.

The DAGR must meet high military specifications for withstanding shock, vibration, and temperature extremes.

"Our soldier needs a solid, reliable, compact unit that will work in any environment," King said.

King also spoke of upcoming military programs in which Rockwell Collins will apply its technological prowess in GPS. They included the Ground Soldier Ensemble, which will provide network connectivity and situational awareness to soldiers on the ground.

Dave Latting, plant manager at Coralville, praised the dedication and sacrifice of employees who made the delivery schedule for the DAGR possible. Representatives of several military bases and commands participated in Thursday morning's ceremony.