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Department of the Navy Establishes Three New Acquisition Executives

The U.S. Navy announces the creation of three new portfolio acquisition executive organizations aimed at modernizing and simplifying the acquisition process.

The Department of the Navy has named three senior acquisition leaders as interim PAE for three new PAE organizations. Credit: Photos By Moo-stock.adobe.com

The Department of the Navy announced Monday the establishment of three new portfolio acquisition executive (PAE) organizations: PAE Aviation, PAE Mission Systems and PAE Munitions.

In addition, the department has assigned three new leaders as interim PAEs: Vice Adm. John Dougherty for Aviation, Jim Day for Missions Systems and Paul Mann for Munitions.

Jason Potter, performing the duties of assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN RDA), said, “With these authorities, we are removing barriers that slowed down capability delivery. We are also doing away with fragmented accountability. Each PAE is accountable for mission outcomes across their entire portfolio.”

PAE Mission Systems, for example, is responsible for the development, integration and delivery of warfighting capabilities.

According to a press release, PAE Mission Systems is a result of the new Warfighting Acquisition System, which reorganized the Department of the Navy around speed, commercial technology, the adoption of the Modular Open System Approach and a focus on solutions-based acquisitions.

“Our historic organization was fragmented and often resulted in low-quality and disconnected capabilities—often, late to need,” Jim Day said. "My focus remains the E-1, our young sailors and Marines. We will build and operate this organization with an obsession to make the E-1 100%, 100% of the time.”

This brings the total number of Navy PAEs to nine. The other PAEs include Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Maritime, Industrial Operations, Marine Corps, Strategic Systems Programs and Undersea.

“This is not just a name change but a critical step toward streamlining and simplifying the Navy’s acquisition process,” said Adm. Jim Kilby, vice chief of naval operations. The three new PAEs are designed to align authority and accountability, reduce process overhead, equip program managers to execute more effectively and deliver operational capability to the Navy and Marine Corps with speed and scale.”