Sea Power - December 2016

“Increased speed means when the general comes up with a con cept or a requirement, my job is to help move that through as fast as we possibly can up to the acquisi tion phase and deliver capabilities to our Marines or to our Sailors as fast as we possibly can. Prototyping and experimentation are an integral part of every phase that we have and it is the connection between all,” he said.

“Industry and academia are
doing a lot of good things here, so
bringing their ideas to the table,
as well as the ideas of our scien
tists and engineers and the naval
research and development estab
lishment, really gives a broad brush
both in breadth and depth of ideas
that we can come and help solve
these problems,” Burrow said.

Walsh said the urgent needs pro cess has been working well in many cases in rapidly fielding systems during the recent wars, includ ing the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle and counter improvised explosive device tech nology.

“There is also the other end of the spectrum of when we deter mine we’ve got a program of record that we want to move faster, that is acceleration, too,” he said.

Although it technically is not an
example of rapid prototyping, the
Amphibious Combat Vehicle pro
gram as one where mature technol
ogy was exploited to rapidly select
demonstrators to downselect for
further competition, Walsh said.

Burrow said the Navy Depart ment likely would decide in December which technology would be tested next year for possible fur ther development.

Mergers, Acquisitions, Reorganizations n Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has entered into a defini tive agreement to acquire Camber Corp., a government services com pany headquartered in Huntsville, Ala. Camber is a provider of sophis ticated missionbased and informa tion technology solutions. Its major customers include the U.S. Navy. Upon closing of the acquisition, HII

Lance Cpl. Zackary W. Rippin, infantry assaultman, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, operates a weaponized Multi-Utility Tactical Transport vehicle during a company assault on Range 400 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., Nov. 7 as part of Integrated Training Exercise 1-17. The battalion has been designated as the Marine Corps’ experimental force. Prototyping and experimentation are an integral part of the service’s push to more rapidly develop and field advanced warfighting capability.