Five new 'NavalX' offices stood up around country

The Navy yesterday announced it stood up five offices around the country as part of the service acquisition executive’s "Naval Expeditionary" endeavor.

The offices are based in Newport, RI; Keyport, WA; San Diego; Orlando, FL, and Crane, IN. Dubbed "tech bridges," the goal of the offices is to begin collaborating with the local community and Navy personnel on technological "focus areas," according to Navy acquisition executive Hondo Geurts. What each office decides to focus on is being left to the community's discretion.

The acquisition executive said Naval Expeditionary, also called NavalX, is meant to improve the Navy's way of doing business by connecting people who would not normally talk to one another. Geurts initially announced NavalX in February at the AFCEA West Conference in San Diego.

Asked what effect the "tech bridges" may have on the service’s larger acquisition programs, Geurts likened the effort to the decision to create digital twins for the Aegis combat system.

"That [decision] was largely fueled by a session where we brought in about 30 folks from across the world who -- not DOD, not military -- face similar problems of ‘If I’m building a car and I want the computer to last forever, and I want to update software all the time, how do I approach that problem?'" Geurts said.

"That session . . . completely transformed how Aegis is going after its digital roadmap going forward," he continued.