ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. Celebrating 50 Years a H i s t o r Y o f a n a lY t i C s e r v i C e s i n C . YEARS YEARS 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 PUBLIC SERVICE. PUBLIC TRUST. PUBLIC SERVICE. PUBLIC TRUST. Written By David Bounds The author thanks Tom Benjamin, Joan Zaorski, Mary Webb, Allifa Settles-Mitchell, Cathy Lee, Jack Butler, Mike Bowers, and Paul Higgins for their great assistance in bringing this project to fruition. Thanks as well to Harry Emlet, George Thompson, Steve Hopkins, Trina Powell, Christina Scott, and many other Analytic Services Inc. staff—past and present—who gave time, insight, and memories to this. As you will see on the next page… this was all about you. [ ii ] [ 111 ] ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. A History of An A ly t i c s e r v i c e s i n c . YEARS 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 PUBLIC SERVICE. PUBLIC TRUST. Dedicated to—in the words of the senior leadership over the life of the corporation so far—the “people, people, people” of Analytic Services Inc., for their efforts that have made this corporation, for their efforts that have helped make this Nation. [ iii ] ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. c e l e b r A t i n g 5 0 y e A r s YEARS 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 PUBLIC SERVICE. PUBLIC TRUST. [ iv ] ANALLYTICIC SERVIICES INC. A History of An A ly t i c s e r v i c e s i n c . YEARS 1199 5 5 8 8 - - 2 2 0 0 0 0 8 8 PPUBBLLICIC SSEERVICE.RVICE. PUBPUBLLICIC TRUST.TRUST. Contents Launch 1958–1976 ................ 1 T r a j e c T ory 1977–1989 ........ 2 5 o r b i T 1990–1999 ................. 4 9 h orizon 2000–2008 ............ 7 5 [ v ] ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. c e l e b r A t i n g 5 0 y e A r s YEARS 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 PUBLIC SERVICE. PUBLIC TRUST. [ vi ] ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. l A u n c H 1958–1976 YEARS 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 PUBLICIC SSERVICE. PUBLICIC TRUST.TRUST. Launch 1958–1976 The Air Force had an important need and the answer was to create Analytic Services. Simply put, that is how Analytic Services Inc. began, and they have been serving the Nation’s interests—military, government, and civil—for half a century since. Those fifty years are quite a story. What happened between that original Air Force need and the “ANSER” is a story to itself. The research outfit that came to be Analytic Services was an unexpected development. After the first several years of the company’s growth, the leadership were not sure how far the company might grow. They served the Air Force—the “continuing level of effort” for which Analytic Services was created. In so doing, they served the United States—that was the primary focus of the leadership and the staff. Analytic Services would later begin looking beyond the Air Force work simply because others beyond the Air Force came looking for Analytic Services’ work. They expanded, but they did it slowly, maintaining the integrity of their primary work. [ 1 ] ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. c e l e b r A t i n g 5 0 y e A r s YEARS 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 PUBLIC SERVICE. PUBLIC TRUST. The new work meant new challenges—an added benefit to a corporation who was all about its people and who therefore sought ways to keep expanding the staff’s horizons. Looking over the horizon for their work soon led—inevitably, one might say—to looking over the horizon of that very work. By the early 1970s, the leadership spent a little time imagining an existence beyond the Air Force; not because they wanted such a future, but because they were exercising sound judgment about the company’s future…however far it might stretch. It was a wise thing to do because the pond of government-military contract work soon began swelling into a lake. That lake would later become a veritable ocean whose tides everyone would scan but no one could predict. It was a similar over-the-horizon insight that introduced the original idea that led to the creation of Analytic Services. The idea came from within the Air Force, sparked by their chief scientist, a Princeton University department head on loan to the Air Force. He wrote a report that would lead to the establishment of an organization whose qualities would not only make it stand up, but also stand out… [ 2 ] ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. l A u n c H 1958–1976 YEARS 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 PUBLIC SERVICE. PUBLIC TRUST. The Perkins Report in 1956, the air Force invited a Princeton university leader to become its chief scientist. Dr. courtland D. Perkins was the chairman of the aerospace and Mechanical Sciences Department at Princeton at the time. The university gave Dr. Perkins leave to take the chief scientist position, which he held from mid-1956 to late 1957. before he returned to his Princeton chairmanship, Dr. Perkins submitted a key report to the air Force. in that report he recommended that the air Force set up a special group of scientists and engineers—many of an established professional stature—to make technical expertise available to the air Force on a quick response basis. The reason for this special group: to help develop technically sound proposals for the research and development of new weapons systems. Lending professional depth to such proposals would also aid the air Force in defending those proposals in the Department of Defense and before congress. Specifically, the research group would support the air Force director who was responsible for formulating the development planning objectives of the air Force. Part of that work for the air Force Director of Development Planning (aFDaP) involved estimating the technical feasibility of potential future weapon systems, techniques, and equipment. Particularly for the development of weapons systems, the air Force relied on both experienced military judgment and comprehensive analyses of such factors as technological risk. The increasing need for such quick-response analyses put a premium on the timely “...the special group...would be located collaboration of military and technical experts. near the Pentagon so they could work side- This was the late 1950s, the time of Sputnik’s by-side with the Air Force.” launch, the detonation of the atomic bomb, and the onset of the cold War. it was also a time when the air Force lacked a technical expert group who could perform the timely military-technical collaborations needed in these times. That was the insight that air Force chief Scientist Dr. Perkins put in his report. Previously, the air Force had retained such research assistance through contracts with various study groups located throughout the united States. This dispersion strained the already limited number of military personnel available to monitor and guide the various contracts. The military inputs were insufficient and untimely as a result; the final results of the research itself suffered. Irrelevance crept into the process as many of the studies unfolded in isolation from the realities of the air Force military environment. [ 3 ] ANALYTIC SERVICES INC. c e l e b r A t i n g 5 0 y e A r s YEARS 1 9 5 8 - 2 0 0 8 PUBLIC SERVICE. PUBLIC TRUST. a key aspect of Dr. Perkins’ vision, therefore, was that the special group of scientists and engineers would be located near the Pentagon so they could work side by side with the air Force. The air Force adopted the Perkins-inspired concept in june 1957. instead of spreading study funds among various study agencies located around the nation, the air Force concentrated the funds in one contractor located in Washington, D.c. To select that contractor, the air Force carefully considered various sources of analytic services. The final decision: increase the level of effort with one company who had been providing satisfactory services to the air Force for six years. That company was corvey engineering. The “augmented capability,” as the air Force called it, that corvey engineering created within their structure was dubbed the Scientific analysis office (SAO). Specifically, the SAO would carry out analyses and evaluations regarding the weapon systems and techniques that would most effectively accomplish the air Force mission “under probable future conditions.” corvey engineering principal Dr. Peter a. cole became the acting director of the SAO. They were set to conduct studies in all of the major air Force mission areas. The Scientific analysis office faced an unexpected turn in the road almost as soon as it set out. An “Anser” to the Melpar-Industry “Problem” not long after the Scientific analysis office (SAO) was formed, the corvey engineering company was incorporated into Melpar, inc., a major developer of electronic equipment. The SAO’s new corporate aegis soon impeded the research group’s studies. industry organizations who might otherwise give inputs to SAO studies were reluctant to do so now because of the proprietary information that would doubtless be included in their inputs. industry did not consider the SAO to be as separate a division within Melpar as Melpar said it was. To mitigate industry trepidation, the SAO established effective safeguards to prevent other Melpar divisions from accessing the SAO-privileged information.