Mission Support and Test Services, LLC (MSTS) has officially taken over as the Management and Operating contractor of the 1,360-square-mile Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) – located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Awarded by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in May, the MSTS Management and Operating contract began December 1. It is valued at $5 billion over 10 years if all options are exercised.
Mark Martinez will serve as MSTS president, providing leadership and management direction for the effective and efficient execution of all operations at the NNSS. He will also lead development of a visionary and executable strategic plan.
John Benner will serve as MSTS vice president. In his position, Benner will work to integrate NNSS operations across organizations to ensure safe, secure and consistent execution and strengthen external relationships with NNSS customers, including the National Laboratories.
Additional MSTS leadership includes: David Feather, programs integration senior director; Ping Lee, NNSA program senior director; Mark Krauss, environmental management program director; Bart Jones, mission execution senior director; James Wallace, nuclear asset operations senior director; Fred Dohse, mission assurance senior director & nuclear safety officer; and Ray Alexander, mission support senior director.
MSTS is a limited liability company consisting of Honeywell International Inc. (Honeywell), Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Jacobs), and Stoller Newport News Nuclear, Inc. (SN3). The company is dedicated to bringing a service and support approach to the mission of the NNSA and its labs and plants in the most cost-efficient and value-added manner.
“Over the past four months, our employees – at all levels – worked tirelessly to ensure we were 100 percent prepared to hit the ground running on day one as the NNSS’ Management and Operating contractor,” Martinez said. “The work of the NNSS is vital to the nation, and to national security, and we couldn’t be more excited to continue the scientific work that the NNSS is known for.”
Martinez and his executive management team collectively hold roughly 300 years of leadership experience supporting national nuclear security. They come from parent companies Honeywell, Jacobs and SN3 with backgrounds at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Kansas City National Security Campus, the Nevada National Security Site, the Pantex Plant, the Savannah River Site, and the U.K. Atomic Weapons Establishment..
MSTS staff collaborated closely with the former NNSS M&O contractor, National Security Technologies, LLC from Aug. 1 – Nov. 30 to ensure a smooth transition. Within the NNSS contract, MSTS employs nearly 2,400 people across numerous facilities: Livermore Operations, New Mexico Operations, Remote Sensing Laboratory-Nellis Air Force Base, Remote Sensing Laboratory-Joint Base Andrews, Special Technologies Laboratory, North Las Vegas facility and the NNSS.
The Nevada National Security Site and its related facilities help ensure the security of the United States and its allies by: supporting the stewardship of the nation’s nuclear deterrent; providing nuclear and radiological emergency response capabilities and training; contributing to key nonproliferation and arms control initiatives; executing national-level experiments in support of the National Laboratories; working with national security customers and other federal agencies on important national security activities; and providing long-term environmental stewardship of the NNSS’s Cold War legacy.
The NNSS falls under the jurisdiction of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The Site’s operations are government-controlled and contractor-operated. They are overseen by DOE’s Nevada Field Office, headquartered in North Las Vegas.