Kevin Gross, the director of Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Threat/Target Systems Department, joined the third iteration of the Percy Hobart Fellowship, an innovation-learning program previously offered to participants from the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

The Fellowship is a 12-week program aimed at providing fellows with the skills and expertise to drive innovation in the defense environment. Gross joins two other U.S. Navy fellows as the U.S. participants in the program selected by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Research Development and Acquisition.

Fellows participate in lectures and workshops with industry and innovation leaders and are teamed up with a startup company looking to provide a new or improved operational or readiness capability to Ministry of Defence and Department of Defense. The idea is to help Fellows experience developing a business model with a new company with the goal of growing the organization from the ground floor into a self-sufficient business. 

In his program application’s statement of interest, Gross noted “The space where innovation meets opportunity is the spark that leads to evolutionary change in our military arsenal.”

“I truly believe that,” Gross said. “I want to sharpen that skill and share what I learn with our warfare center to help make us better.”

He said that his selection was a humbling surprise. Gross also noted that he was more than a little worried about how his family might react to him effectively deploying to London for three months. A retired Marine Corps officer who flew AV-8B Harriers during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Gross said he’d promised them no more deployments.

But once he got over that initial shock, Gross was “proud to have the opportunity to represent NAWCWD, Naval Air Systems Command and the U.S. Navy” in the program.

And in a way, the COVID-19 pandemic helped with the family concerns; travel restrictions moved much of the Fellowship programming online requiring Gross to begin his workday at 1:00 am to align with the UK fellowship, at least for now

Click here to read more about the Percy Hobart Fellowship.