ONR chief: Navy to deliver S&T upgrades to the fleet faster

Seeking to deliver science and technology upgrades to the fleet faster, the naval research chief has updated the service's strategic guidance.

Rear Adm. David Hahn told reporters July 20 in Washington that rather than update his office's strategic guidance to reflect different technology investment areas, as has been done in the past, he is instead focusing on delivering capabilities faster.

"The metronome is moving too slow for the world that we live in," Hahn said. "As I watch our globally stretched set of forces trying to operate . . . we don't have the availability of our ships, submarines and airplanes to modernize, to inject capability at the speed that it's being created."
The acquisition delivery mechanisms are "tuned to a different beat -- that beat's got to change," he said.

Hahn said this may call for behavioral or organizational changes, but his team is open to industry's input on the best way forward.