CAPT Frank Futcher, NavalX director with the U.S. Navy, will serve as a panelist during Potomac Officers Club’s 2020 Navy Forum on September 30th. Futcher is a career Navy Supply Officer and currently assigned to the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition.
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Prior to his current assignment, he was deputy department chair of Defense Strategy, Acquisition, and Resourcing Department, and director and faculty lead for the Emerging Technologies Industry Study at the National Defense University.
While at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV), Futcher was the Navy’s lead for accelerating implementation of additive manufacturing across the U.S. Navy and supervised the development of the Navy’s first Additive Manufacturing Vision and the Department of the Navy’s first Additive Manufacturing Roadmap.
The U.S. Navy has continually worked to decentralize, differentialize and digitize the service branch’s work as well as develop its talent in the field. Additionally, the Navy has accelerated acquisition channels, modernized emerging technologies and increased research and development to become more effective in warfare.
As the Navy continues to evolve to meet the growing demands, challenges still remain. Join Potomac Officers Club’s 2020 Navy Forum to hear notable industry and federal leaders discuss the initiatives, efficiencies and challenges the service branch faces as well as how to join together to improve the future of warfare.
James “Hondo” Geurts, assistant secretary for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN (RD&A)) with the U.S. Navy, will be featured as a keynote speaker during Potomac Officers Club’s 2020 Navy Forum on September 30th.
Geurts recently discussed the challenges and initiatives within the U.S. Navy as the service branch spearheads modernization efforts. He focused primarily on unmanned systems, and stated the various elements in which the Navy will continue to develop.
“From my perspective, the biggest challenge in the unmanned arena is not the technology, per se. There’s certainly some technology elements to work on,” Geurts said. “It’s really the concept of operations, the command and control, the concept of employment. And so I do think there is a balance we’ve got to strike with getting some prototypes out to the field so that the fleet can understand how to best utilize what’s available.”
Click here to register for the 2020 Navy Forum on Sept. 30, 2020.
