(Professor Sam J. Tangredi) U.S. Naval War College established the Leidos Chair of Future Warfare Studies on March 12 with the selection of professor Sam Tangredi to serve as the inaugural chair.
The Leidos Chair will develop insights into operational challenges and needs, identify warfare-area capabilities and provide assessments of potential systems, including their design principles and attributes such as versatility and rapid fabrication.
"It is wonderful that Leidos has chosen to support research at the Naval War College through the Naval War College Foundation, and it is certainly an honor to be appointed as the inaugural chair,” said Tangredi, a retired Navy captain who joined the college faculty in 2016.
"Hopefully, establishment of the chair will foster greater collaboration among the talented faculty of the Naval War College and in research efforts beyond the college. Assessing and planning for the future is everyone’s responsibility."
In February 2017, Naval War College President Rear Adm. Jeffrey Harley established the Institute for Future Warfare Studies (IFWS) as a new research center aimed at understanding how armed conflict may evolve in the future and how the U.S. Navy can better prepare for it.
"The advance of autonomous systems and other emerging technologies disrupts convention, and the Naval War College is leading the way to assess future warfare environments and missions, and to assess technology trajectories that will be crucial to future force architecture," Harley said. "Anticipating future security challenges is critical to our national security."
IFWS conducts research and analysis to determine what platforms, weapons and capabilities the Navy is likely to need in the decades ahead. The institute therefore directly supports the requirements of the Secretary of the Navy, the chief of naval operations, combatant commanders, Navy component commanders and numbered fleet commanders, and other Navy and Marine Corps commanders.
Tangredi is currently professor of national, naval and maritime strategy in the Strategic and Operational Research Department of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies. In May 2017, he took on additional responsibilities as head of IFWS. He has published five books, over 150 journal articles and book chapters and numerous reports for government and academic organizations.
A retired surface warfare officer, Tangredi held command at sea and directed several strategic planning organizations in the Department of Defense.