John J. Young Jr.

Navy
John J. Young Jr.
Assistant Secretary for Research,
Development and Acquisition

As assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, John J. Young Jr. manages billions of dollars' worth of programs, including shipbuilding, aircraft and missile purchases, and information technology upgrades. Since being confirmed in 2001, Young has awarded major contracts for the DD(X) destroyer, the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft, the T-AKE auxiliary ship, the VXX Presidential Helicopter and the Littoral Combat Ship. He also has pursued greater cooperation among the services with efforts such as the Distributed Common Ground System for collection of intelligence imagery and signals and a merger of the Air Force and Navy Joint Tactical Radio System programs.

The major issue Young is grappling with this year is funding for the DD(X). At a July House Armed Services Projection Forces Subcommittee hearing, Navy officials estimated the lead DD(X) destroyer would cost $3.3 billion, with follow-on ships priced between $2.2 billion and $2.6 billion. A congressional analyst said, however, the true cost of DD(X) is closer to $4.7 billion for the lead ship, with an average price of $3.5 billion for the other ships.

As chief acquisition officer, Young wants the Navy to use more incentive-based contracts, reduce the time it takes to generate requirements for new procurements, develop more joint programs with other services, and enter into more multiyear contracts. He also is pushing a business practice known as Lean Six Sigma, which is catching on throughout industry. The practice consists of mapping process steps throughout the supply chain, eliminating waste and redundancy, and developing in-depth statistical metrics to analyze quality.

Young was recently nominated to be the Defense Department's director of research and engineering. As of late August, no successor had been named.