INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: Special Projects Special Applications (SPSA), LLC.
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Tom Little
Project Manager
Special Projects Special Applications (SPSA), LLC.
Tom Little is a project manager for Special Projects Special Applications (SPSA) LLC. He holds a Master of Forensic Science Degree and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. A retired United States Marine Corps officer, he served in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, following which he designed, developed and fielded 11 separate systems of USMC close-quarters battle and reconnaissance equipment for Marine Corps Systems Command. He also wrote the USMC Technical Manual (TM 24562A) entitled Principle Technical Characteristics and Components List of U.S. Marine Corps Close Quarters Battle Equipment.
Q: SPSA is affiliated with Tactical & Survival Specialties Incorporated [TSSI]. Why was SPSA created?
A: TSSI has a 25-year history of providing logistical support to military, law enforcement and emergency response agencies. During this time, TSSI has been involved in countless special projects where the customer either requested conceptual equipment items, custom system designs and integration, or the procurement of hard-to-find products and services. Previously, TSSI accomplished these missions through the temporary re-assignment of its existing staff. Ultimately, the founder and president of TSSI, Bill Strang, determined that those customers desiring these types of focused services deserved an organization whose sole purpose was to meet these special requirements. SPSA was created to provide this type of dedicated support.
Q: What distinguishes the capabilities provided by SPSA from those previously provided by TSSI?
A: The first difference is the background and qualifications of the SPSA staff. These individuals are highly experienced in program and project management and have taken systems from a point of theoretical conceptualization all of the way through to life cycle support. They understand the difference between systems integration and what other organizations advertise as kitting. Systems integration goes far beyond simply taking individual items, putting them together into one bag or box, and calling it a service. The second difference is a total fixation on meeting the project’s needs from the start of a project until its completion, without the distraction of competing interests or priorities inherent within a parent company. This is the primary reason why SPSA was established as a separate company from TSSI, to provide services beyond those simple requests for cataloged items.
Q: What are those services that are provided by SPSA?
A: To start with, SPSA offers the full range of project development and project management services. This starts with conducting research and making educated recommendations concerning established or developmental products and with exploring new alternatives. It also includes the coordination and conduct of both developmental and operational tests and evaluations; simplified procurements; and life-cycle support efforts such as replacement, repair, refurbishment, and upgrade. SPSA facilitates systems integration and standardization by partnering with both the customer and industry to ensure that every aspect of any system works in conjunction with each of its components, or with the components of related systems. In many cases we have identified reasons why components of a customer’s system were interoperable— before they procured the systems—and provided them with functional alternatives.
SPSA also offers a full range of palletization and pre-positioning services. These include the use of industrial packaging standards, custom container designs and Mil-Spec packaging. We provide tamper-evident and opaque packaging materials and wrappings to maximize product and customer discretion and to prevent visual identification of the items being shipped. Our existing warehouse space facilitates 463L aircraft pallet loading and inspection, and we can follow that with ground transportation to your designated aerial port or to a local airport situated just minutes away. SPSA can also store shipments until immediately prior to their required delivery date, alleviating the customer’s need to provide warehousing themselves.
Q: Who is SPSA’s primary customer base?
A: In addition to those categories mentioned above as current TSSI customers, SPSA is expanding into other local, state and federal agencies having similar needs for logistical services and products. Additionally, SPSA is also working very closely with numerous federal contracting organizations to support their logistical needs.
Q: What projects are SPSA and TSSI currently working on that would be of interest to MMT readers?
A: Three primarily. We just attained product availability on a medical bag designed by an 18D SF medic that enables the wearer to sit comfortably in both a vehicle or aircraft while wearing the system. Most of the current bags that are out there are far too bulky to actually be worn comfortably under these circumstances.
The second is a convoy casualty bag that has been designed to provide emergency life-saving medical aid—breathing, bleeding and burns—and emergency evacuation for 4-6 casualties under combat conditions. We are also finishing a field sanitation kit in both 25/150-person configurations to provide those products necessary to prevent the spread of disease and maintain proper hygiene under austere conditions. ♦