Partnership of GM, YPG gaining speed

What a difference two years make.

When the General Motors 2,400-acre Desert Proving Ground opened at Yuma Proving Ground in June 2009, the company was in deep distress. A share of company stock sold for less than one dollar, a price too low to merit being traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

“Our official opening was June 1, 2009, the day GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,” recalled Frank West, site manager at the GM facility. “We had 75 people moving down here who were very concerned about their jobs and future. There was no assurance that anyone could give them about their jobs. It was almost surreal.”

The grim times almost overshadowed the groundbreaking success of the YPG-GM partnership. Though YPG was the Army's premier hot weather test site, it lacked a sufficiently specialized facility to conduct continuous high-speed testing on paved roads.

In response to this hard fact, a legal device called “enhanced use lease” was developed to allow the military to lease government property to private sector entities whose business was relevant to military needs, with the provision that the Army would be allowed to utilize the private facilities.

For its part, GM was interested in relocating from its antiquated hot weather test track in Mesa. The Army and GM inked a 50-year lease with an option for an additional 50 years at YPG in 2007.

General Motors

Today, GM has returned to profitability. As the dedicated hot weather test facility for the global corporation, every automobile manufactured by the company now comes to Yuma at some point.

Aside from the long-term lease and the opportunity to use YPG facilities, GM was also attracted to the unique means of protecting its competitive advantage that the partnership provided. Locating on a secure Army installation with 2,000 square miles of restricted airspace above it eliminated security concerns that had existed in Mesa, where urban encroachment gave people the opportunity to view new vehicles from the windows of houses overlooking the test track.

“Our new location gives us air and ground cover, courtesy of the U.S. Army,” West said with a smile.

GM facility employees have found time to give back to their new hometown. From mentoring local high school students in a robotics competition to contributing money toward the construction of a new marquee at Price School, GM has left its mark on the local community.

More importantly, though, the facility continues to generate jobs for the community. Several Arizona Western College students originally hired as interns now work for GM full-time as technicians and engineers, and the company recently hired 20 summer test drivers.

Army testing

With YPG testers on the front line in the critical effort to field the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle to Iraq and Afghanistan in the middle of the past decade, the need for high-speed test capability was more acute than ever. As part of the agreement, GM built a 4½-mile high-speed paved oval road course specifically designed to accommodate the heaviest vehicles in the Army inventory.

“We can do high-speed testing at 75 or 85 miles per hour easily and safely on our oval course,” said Zack El-Ansari, chief of YPG's Combat and Automotive Systems Division. “Before, we could only accommodate two vehicles at a time on our hot weather test track. Now we can have as many as eight simultaneously.”

YPG is currently the busiest test center in the U.S. Army Developmental Test Command, with testing of combat vehicles the largest component of the workload. In the event the new tracks aren't sufficient to accommodate the robust test requirements for multiple Army vehicles under evaluation at YPG, getting on the schedule at the GM track is easily accomplished through a phone call or email to the facility's traffic safety department.

An Army showcase

As the largest enhanced use lease project in the Army, the partnership has attracted the attention of the organization's highest levels. In late April, Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, made a special point of touring the GM facility during her daylong visit to YPG.

“The relationship with GM and the proving ground is a great example of public-private partnership, and is something we are encouraging all of our installations to take a look at,” said Hammack.

On the ground, officials from both YPG and GM are optimistic that the partnership will be fruitful and enduring.

“The partnership has worked well because the people on the ground are committed to making it work,” said West. “We're looking forward to a 50- to 100-year partnership.”

“It has been a very good relationship that is paying off well for the Army and our mission,” added El-Ansari. “We want to maintain a culture of cooperation for many years to come.”

Mark Schauer writes for The Outpost, the newspaper at Yuma Proving Ground.