In May, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) welcomed Kurt Rockwell as the command’s newest Unmanned Systems (UxS) director.

“My goal is to make sure that we have and execute a robust strategy for our UxS at NAWCWD,” Rockwell said. “When people look at our organization, I want them to say, ‘That’s the place to go for UxS work.’ I want us to be the center of excellence for really building capabilities into UxS platforms and being able to test them for deployment.”

When Rockwell first came to NAWCWD in 2002, he worked with the Air Vehicle Modification and Instrumentation group for seven years, which earned him the Test and Evaluations Director’s Award in 2007. Following this tenure, he joined the Weapons and Energetics Department in the Tactical Weapons Technical Project Office leading a Joint Capability Technology Demonstration called Medusa for three years.

"I went from leading project managers doing development of instrumentation systems for test and evaluation of weapons into a role where I was leading a team that was developing a weapon, a launcher, the avionics for a helicopter platform and the integration of all of those systems," Rockwell said of this work, which was a cooperative development project with the Agency for Defense Development of the Republic of South Korea. "It was very different from anything I'd ever done, but that made it a phenomenal experience. I'm really proud of the technological and programmatic work we did."

 After his time in Tactical Weapons, Rockwell applied for and was selected to be the associate director of business operations for the Threat Target Systems Department (AIR-5.3).  In this role, he managed the competency side of the organization (people, resources and facilities), the department’s strategic planning process and was responsible for the department’s cyber security efforts.

“I had a cohort who ran the programmatic side of things and the two of us supported the director,” Rockwell said. “I’ve had several opportunities to learn and be submersed in a new world: new exciting business, new dedicated and talented people, new terminology and much more with each position I’ve held.”

Rockwell is a third generation NAWCWD employee who grew up in Ridgecrest. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of California, Davis and obtained an MBA from UCLA. Prior to working at the Weapons Division, he spent 16 years in the precision motion and automation industry working in sales, marketing, and operations management positions. He’s spent time as a substitute teacher at all grade levels and is in his ninth year as a member of the local school board.

“In my role, so far, I’ve been working to understand all the pieces of what NAWCWD does with regard to UxS in order to develop a clear strategy that will make it all work together,” Rockwell said. “I’ve been blessed to work with talented and dedicated professionals throughout the command to craft that vision. I’m thankful and honored to have been able to transition an exciting career working with automated systems in industry to developing and applying automated systems in the battlefield to support our warfighters.”