ASN RDA Tours NAWCWD Center

The Honorable Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) for Research, Development and Acquisition (RDA), was the latest of several senior Defense Department leaders to visit Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division to see firsthand the in-house expertise and resources available at the Navy’s premiere research lab for weapons.

“NAWCWD is clearly a warfare center that hasn’t lost touch with the warfighter,” said Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, who toured NAWCWD on Aug. 11.

His visit followed closely behind that of the Honorable Frank Kendall, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, who continues to speak highly of the workforce and the significant capabilities he witnessed during his visit in May.

NAWCWD’s military and civilian workforce filled Stackley’s daylong visit to China Lake with demonstrations and discussions about several work focus areas including electronic warfare systems, target and threat simulation, and unmanned systems. Stackley then went on a walking tour of NAWCWD’s Advanced Weapons Lab where he saw firsthand how the integrated approach to development, integration, and test (operational test and developmental test) of software, systems and weapons for the F-18 aircraft, maintained during the last 35 years, has provided the fleet with significant capability improvements affordably and effectively. He also heard how the Navy can leverage this experience to help support the Joint Strike Fighter in the future.

Other discussions focused on the technical advances made by NAWCWD weapons developments including Spike missile, synthetic guidance, the digital precision strike suite, and weapons propulsion opportunities for the government to assume more of a leadership role going forward. He also saw the unique resources that are already in place and ready to support a variety of work important to the Navy during an overview of the NAWCWD land range at China Lake.