Pinnacle’s UAS IMS Team Wins Prestigious Award

Pinnacle Solutions, Inc. received this year’s 2021 Materiel Readiness Award for a Contribution by a Small Business presented during the Cribbins Training, Equipping and Sustainment Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.

On behalf of the winning team supporting the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Instruction and Mission Support (IMS) contract in Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, this prestigious award was accepted by Tina Tucker, COO; and Krista Ochs, UAS IMS Maintenance Services Program Manager, during the award ceremony held by the Army Aviation Association of America.

Pinnacle provides materiel readiness support to the U.S. Army’s RQ-7Bv2 Shadow Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training Battalion, 2nd Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Pinnacle supported 360 Army Aviation Unmanned Operator students by completing 1,733.8 hours of flight training from 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021. The Pinnacle team averaged a Fully Mission Capable (FMC) rate of 91% for all associated aviation system equipment, far exceeding the Army standard of 80%, and supports 63 end items with a value of $36,174,156, the equivalent of four fully fielded Shadow UAS units. The local fleet is made up of 15 aircraft, 10 ground control stations, 10 ground data terminals, eight launchers, and 12 tactical automatic landing systems. The Pinnacle Team balances FMC rates between end items on two airfields, Sunday through Friday, 24 hours a day, to meet the training mission, while sustaining an aviation Class A-C accident rate of zero per 100,000 flying hours for the Shadow UAS, leading the Army with a focus on aviation safety.

This focus and dedication to the training mission helped Pinnacle’s UAS IMS team to be selected as the winner of the 2021 AAAA Materiel Readiness Award.