Greenert Discusses Innovation at Defense Forum

By Lisa Ferdinando

Army News Service

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 16, 2014 – Connecting with researchers and getting personnel involved in projects are ways to encourage innovation, the Navy’s top officer said at the Reagan National Defense Forum here yesterday.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert attended a panel discussion about rethinking the industrial base and how the Pentagon can capitalize on and incentivize innovation.

Maintaining good communications with defense researchers is a key factor for innovation, said Greenert, noting it’s not helpful to have a "bunch of lab coats out there doing various things and see what falls out."

Relationships With Industry

Having good relationships with businesses also is important, he said, as well as providing them early input when you have an idea.

"You’ve got to look internationally with business. You’ve got to talk to the industry partners," the admiral said. "In the world I live in, we have sea power because we have an industrial base that is awesome and it brings us good things."

Greenert recommended looking inward and utilizing what equipment and personnel you have.

Promote Innovative Thinking

The admiral reported positive results in getting junior officers and enlisted personnel involved in innovative thinking, such as in finding a way to determine cyber vulnerabilities for ships.

"It's an astounding thing that we're using for our standard," he said.

Looking at what you have and seeing what you can do with it can produce good results, Greenert said.

When the Navy needed a way to transport items off a ship, it employed innovative thinking and saved billions of taxpayer dollars, he said.

Saving Taxpayer Dollars

"We sat down and said, 'We need more expeditionary capability but we don't want to spend billions of dollars on a gray hull [ship] when really I need just a means to move things from ship-to-shore," Greenert said.

Rather than paying $4.5 billion for a brand-new vessel, the Navy instead went to a shipbuilder and obtained a modified Alaskan tanker for $500 million.

It’s important to "retire the risk as much as feasible" or even put a project aside, Greenert said, instead of spending "millions and maybe billions on a program that's just never going to come to fruition."