Navy says it's tapped 'senior technical authorities' for all ship classes

The Navy says it's appointed "senior technical authorities" for each ship class and decided to tap existing senior executive service personnel from engineering directorates to fill the roles.

Lawmakers in the fiscal year 2020 defense policy bill required the Navy to install the new position, citing a June 2018 Government Accountability Office analysis that concluded the service has continually overfunded and under delivered in its shipbuilding programs.

Navy acquisition executive Hondo Geurts "designated the STAs on 14 January 2020, and updated that designation on 6 March 2020 when one of the existing senior executive service (SES) billets was filled," service spokeswoman Colleen O'Rourke told Inside Defense yesterday in a written statement.

In the legislation, lawmakers explicitly signaled support for the Navy hiring new personnel to fill the STA positions. However, the service opted not to create any new billets.

"The STAs are in the engineering directorate and are independent from the program offices and [program executive offices]. Since the STAs are currently responsible for technical authority, systems engineering and integration for those vessels, the STA assignment aligns well with their roles and responsibilities," O'Rourke continued.

In addition to establishing the position, lawmakers are requiring the Navy secretary to provide them a technical certification from the STA before obligating any shipbuilding funds to a new class of vessels past milestone B.