In-Sight from October 2024

Appointments

Troy Brunk has been appointed president of Collins Aerospace and will report to RTX President and CEO Christopher Calio. Brunk, a 30-year aerospace and defense veteran, succeeds Stephen Timm who is retiring.

Brunk has served in various Collins Aerospace leadership positions including president of the Avionics, Interiors and Mission Systems strategic business units. Brunk earned his B.S. in Industrial Engineering and MBA from the University of Iowa. Timm will remain with the company through March 2025 as special advisor, focused on business transformation at Collins Aerospace, continuing to report to Calio. Timm’s career with Collins spans 28 years, serving as business president since 2020. He played a critical role in managing Collins through the global pandemic and commercial aerospace recovery.

As part of the planned leadership transition, Heather Robertson becomes president of Collins’ Mission Systems strategic business unit.

Robertson is a 24-year company veteran with leadership expertise spanning defense and commercial segments. Most recently she served as COO for Mission Systems. Previously, Robertson was vice president and general manager of the company’s Commercial Air Transport Systems business, and before that she spent more than a decade in leadership roles supporting the Mission Systems portfolio.

For more: http://www.collinsaerospace.com

DCS Corp. appointed Brian Samples to vice president and manager of the Ground Vehicle Integration & Support Division, Army and Marine Corps Sector. He replaces John Johnson who is retiring after 22 years with the company.

Samples will be managing DCS’s work for the Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) Software Engineering Center, Vehicle Electronics Architecture, and Ground Vehicle Survivability and Protection organizations. He will also coordinate support to U.S. Army Tank-automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) ground vehicle project management (PM) and program executive office (PEO) organizations.

Samples joined DCS in 2000 after graduating from West Virginia University with a B.S. in Computer Engineering. He began his career as a software engineer, providing embedded systems and software development for several GVSC ground vehicle advanced technology demonstration programs. He later transitioned to providing PM support to the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) project office, an effort initiated in response to the surge in U.S. casualties from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during the Iraq War. In PM for MRAP, Samples became a highly valued subject matter expert providing program acquisition support and serving as a technical liaison for the MRAP Integrated Bridge digitization program.

In 2014, Samples was promoted to lead the MRAP Branch, which later became the Tactical Vehicle and Watercraft Branch. He oversaw contract work directives and expanded his direct PM support roles to the Army Watercraft and Vehicle Protection Systems. In 2022, Samples was promoted to Vehicle Systems department manager where he served until June 2024.

For more: http://www.dcscorp.com

Mark Rayha will succeed Kevin Graney as president of General Dynamics Electric Boat as Graney will retire at the end of the year. Rayha currently serves as SVP and COO of Electric Boat, effective December 1.

Graney joined General Dynamics in 1995 and served in leadership roles at Electric Boat and National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. before becoming a general manager and then president of NASSCO from 2013 to 2019 and president of Electric Boat in 2019.

Rayha joined General Dynamics in 1989 at Land Systems. He became CFO of General Dynamics Mission Systems in 2015. He joined Electric Boat in 2020 and served as CFO from 2021 to 2023. He became COO in 2023.

For more: http://www.gdeb.com

DZYNE Technologies announced the addition of Vice Admiral Collin Green (Ret.) as head of Strategic Defense Solutions. With extensive global experience and a deep understanding of the demands of the modern warfighter, Vice Adm. Green will help shape strategic growth at DZYNE.

The appointment follows the conclusion of a distinguished 38-year military career in special operations, defense, and national security. Most recently, he served as Deputy Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and previously as Commander of Naval Special Warfare (NSW), having received widespread recognition for leadership of NSW groups through the highest periods of combat across the Global War on Terrorism.

For more: https://dzyne.com

Divergent Technologies Inc. named retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Nathan P. Diller as the company’s inaugural chief strategy officer for aerospace and defense. He most recently served on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, where he oversaw a $42 billion annual defense-wide research, development, and procurement budget. As a professional staff member, he drafted defense innovation legislation to drive appropriations flexibility and transparency to accelerate adoption of emerging technologies. In his final role in the Air Force, Diller was the director of AF-WERX and responsible for the strategy and execution of a $1 billion annual advanced technology budget for the U.S. Air Force and Space Force. Diller will scale Divergent’s aerospace and defense business, as well as lead the company’s government affairs.

For more: https://www.divergent3d.com

Frank Varga has been appointed president and CEO of Apogee, a provider of defense and security solutions for the U.S. defense, government, and civilian industries. Varga succeeds CEO Wes Georges, who founded Apogee in 2004. Varga has been with Apogee for more than 15 years and has held several key leadership positions within the company including chief operating officer. Prior to joining Apogee, Varga was a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and served in the U.S. Air Force space communications and bomber sustainment fields.

For more: https://www.apogeeusa.com

Military robots markets

The military robots market size is forecast to increase by $8.62 billion, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.51% between 2023 and 2028. One major trend is the strengthening of border surveillance and patrolling, leading to increased demand for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for border security applications. Another trend is the development of multi-mission robots, which can perform various tasks such as bomb disposal, reconnaissance, and combat support, making them valuable assets for military operations.

For more: https://www.technavio.com