Jerry Short, acting deputy commander of Naval Air Systems Command, said the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps will continue to spearhead modernization to maintain a technological advantage over peers.
Short and other NAVAIR officers discussed strategic opportunities for industry partnership at a meeting administered by The Patuxent Partnership and Southern Maryland Navy Alliance, the command said Friday.
He noted that NAVAIR plans to increase its number of onsite personnel in the near future following pandemic-driven workplace changes, but can still maintain a hybrid workforce setup through technology.
Short said the pandemic presented an opportunity to adopt a combination of telework and on-site operations.
Sue DeGuzman, who leads NAVAIR’s engineering group on an acting basis, said the Navy should change how it operates because adversaries have observed the U.S. military over the years.
“Our adversaries have observed our military and our methods and developed strategies to disrupt or potentially deny the Navy’s ability to answer threats,” DeGuzman said.
With regard to this needed change, she highlighted the Distributed Maritime Operations approach, which uses a fleet of smaller manned and unmanned vessels networked with weapons and sensor systems.
