James Geurts, assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy for research, development and acquisition and 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the service is revising its business procedures amid the current health crisis, National Defense Magazine reported Wednesday.
Geurts told attendees at the virtual Sea-Air-Space conference that the Navy is “understanding how to collaborate better” while working to expedite research and development activities through partnerships with academic entities.
He added that the Navy is implementing a distributed research framework to allow concurrent operations between multiple organizations. The service is additionally deploying a three-phase approach to prevent program delays and accelerate contract awards, said Geurts.
“What we can’t afford to do is take a year or two off of research and development, lose those key performers because they are key to our readiness five and 10 years from now,” he noted. “We’re looking to be as aggressive with them, if not more so, than we are with our more traditional defense partners.”