In this episode of the Acquisition Talk podcast,  Dorothy Engelhart joins me to discuss unmanned surface and underwater vessel development in the United States Navy. Dorothy is the Director of Unmanned Systems in the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for ships, and she has been in this role since 2015. Before that, she was a senior acquisition manager for Marine Corps MDAPs, and had over 20 years of experience in NAVAIR as well as experience on the Hill.

1:04 - Rundown of the unmanned portfolio
2:40 - Enabling technologies vs. Program of Record
4:45 - Timeline to fielding USVs and UUVs
7:00 - Owning the data for autonomy
11:10 - Capability over time curves and USV requirements
15:00 - USV Concept of operations
19:30 - Industry's readiness for USV production
27:40 - Agile funding and acquisition authorities
35:00 - Speed of adoption in Turkey and other nations
37:30 - "As a service" business model
41:50 - Navy's autonomy roadmap
45:00 - Total cost of ownership
49:40 - The Disruptor newsletter

This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

The state of Navy unmanned with Dorothy Engelhardt

A podcast on the management, technology, and political-economy of weapon systems acquisition.