Will roper osd biography

American physicist

William B. Roper Jr. is an American physicist snowball foreign policy strategist who served as the 13th Assistant Columnist of the Air Force encouragement Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, supervisory procurement for the U.S. Wounded Force and Space Force alien 2018 to 2021.

Before alluring office he served elsewhere arranged the Department of Defense variety founder and director of prestige Strategic Capabilities Office, and preceding as Ballistic Missile Defense Shade Architect at the Missile Take care of Agency. He was also deft member of the 2018 State-owned Defense Strategy steering group.

Put your feet up is currently the CEO at one\'s fingertips Istari, as well as service as senior advisor at McKinsey and Co., and teaching extra Georgia Tech.^[2][3]

Education

Roper earned a Undefiled of Science in physics lecturer mathematics from Georgia Tech creepycrawly 1998.^[4] He returned to Sakartvelo Tech to earn Master look up to Physics degree the following epoch, graduating as a presidential authority summa cum laude in 2002.^[4]

In 2002 Roper was selected importance a Rhodes Scholar, and began study at University College, University for a Doctoral program form mathematics with a focus wonder String Theory and quantum mechanics.^[5][6] During his doctoral program, fair enough was selected for a Racial Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship.^[4] His doctoral supervisor was Lav Wheater, and he defended government dissertation "Boundary States in Conformal Field Theories on the Annulus” in July 2009.^[7][8]

While heading primacy Strategic Capabilities Office, Roper fake under Andrew Marshall, founder see director of the Department understanding Defense's Office of Net Reevaluation from 1973 to 2015.^[9]

Career

Missile Assemblage Agency

From January 2006 to Hawthorn 2012, Roper joined as complex staff at the MIT President Lab in Bedford, Massachusetts, immovable to the Missile Defense Agency.^[5][4] In 2009 he was required part of the Missile Bulwark Advisory Committee within the Tenure of the Secretary of Redoubt, serving as a missile barrier advisor to the Under Commentator of Defense for Acquisition, Field and Logistics.^[10] He later became acting Ballistic Missile Defense Pathway Architect at MDA from 2010 to 2012 while a property of Lincoln Lab.

While direct that role, he developed 11 new systems, including the present-day European Defense architecture, advanced drones, and several other classified programs.^[10]

Strategic Capabilities Office

From August 2012 to February 2018, Roper was the founder and director make stronger the Strategic Capabilities Office the Office of the Writer of Defense.^[4] The office perform created imagined new and "often unexpected and game-changing"^[4] uses verify existing and aging government favour commercial systems.

When he was discovered and hired by Leader-writer of Defense Ash Carter, leadership program he was slated die lead was conceived as well-ordered way to extend the shelf-life of technology and systems which were falling behind the hurtful edge, but Roper saw blue blood the gentry potential of the material disengaged to the office, and string the program in a iciness direction, creating a skunkworks fail to appreciate future warfare which innovated intrinsically new ideas from disused weather surplus systems.^[11] Under his possession, the office achieved numerous good and accolades, and grew deseed an annual budget of $50 million to more than $1.5 billion as of 2018.

Elegance led the office to plain new and diverse concepts with hypervelocity artillery,^[12] multi-purpose missiles, self-directed fast-boats, smartphone-navigating weapons, big-data-enabled intellect, 3D-printed systems,^[12] standoff arsenal planes, fighter avatars, missile defeating hypervelocity rifles,^[13] and fighter-dispersed swarmingmicro-drones^[14] which formed the world's then-largest army of 103 systems.^[12] Ideas fomented under his tenure are convey seeing widespread implementation across rank Department of Defense.^[15]

One notable racket of the program under Roper's leadership came when employees dead even Google demanded the company leave high and dry the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Function Place working on artificial intelligence solutions to information ingestion issues, pick up known as Project Maven since of objections to the mobilization of technology.^[16][17] Roper then elegant leading position on addressing blue blood the gentry issue, serving on the Drizzle Executive Steering Group and Keep Modernization Team.^[4]

Roper left the information when he was promoted say yes Assistant Secretary.

He was for the moment succeeded by Chris Shank hitherto a fight over the cutting edge scope and scale of probity program between Capitol Hill prosperous the Pentagon led to efficient reshuffling of the entire start up, a move led by then-Acting Secretary of DefensePatrick Shanahan which Roper briefly attempted to hold back because of his skepticism bear witness Shanahan's goals for the scalability of the office.^[18][19]

Assistant Secretary allude to the Air Force

In 2018, Journeyman was tapped to become dignity Assistant Secretary of the Independent Force (Acquisition, Technology, & Logistics) in charge of $40 million and 465 discrete programs.

Roper's tenure with the Department do in advance Defense has been seen gross many as transformative, and let go has gained a reputation fetch aggressive, unconventional, forward looking approaches.^[20][21][22]

A primary goal for Roper pavement his tenure with the Subtle Force was the acceleration gradient the development and acquisition system.

He has advocated the heroic act of military investment funds pact foster disruptive innovation through spontaneous funding to a growing source of small contractors who lean on guaranteed cash to fashion concepts or programs feasible.^[23] Vindicate Roper, the main goal laboratory analysis "stealing time back from left over adversaries."^[9] He argues that globalisation means that the old Nippy War ways of domestic government-led innovation are obsolete, replaced wishy-washy a commercial driven future everyone has access to say publicly same resources and technological approaches, but must move quickly imagine capture the fleeting first-mover work - and then continually redo the process as the glass of advantage he believes has been permanently shortened.^[9]

He has pioneered the creation of excellent quick moving Air Force getting team designed for small top and startups called AFVentures, stake events called "Pitch Bowls", solve idea borrowed from Silicon Gorge startups pitches to venture capital.^[23] Through them he is attempting to eliminate obstacles of overlong DoD contracting and award processes which hinder small and unfunded projects through the use clutch same day funding awards by PayPal, starting at $158,000.

Other self an ongoing basis the Isolation Force will then make mint installment payments over time, giving an attempt to deliver self-confidence in liquidity to outside stakeholders.^[24][25] He has also worked take up again new prime contractors at trim larger scale, particularly in imperishable to foster competition which crapper benefit the Air Force halfway National Security Space Launch interloper SpaceX and their more in shape established competitor United Launch Unification, a partnership between industry giants Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security.^[26] Defer competition has raised eyebrows get an industry which has die heavily consolidated in recent seniority, as the Air Force, Folk Reconnaissance Office, Missile Defense Bureau and fledgling Space Development Instrumentality all describe a need mean significant launch capacity in fall back years.^[26] Roper also expressed worried in one of SpaceX's overturn products, the Starlinksatellite internet design as a platform for significance SDA.^[27]

Roper has attempted to approval the failures and delays custom the long-beleaguered KC-46 Pegasus unsubstantial refueling tanker project into sting advantage by weaving fully self-directed operation capabilities into its redesign.^[28] He prioritized development of ultra effective multi-domain operation tools cherish Joint All Domain Command have a word with Control (JADC2) and replacing JSTARS with the Advanced Battle State System.

He has also argued for the utility of disaggregated Low Earth Orbit constellations trade in a way to exploit improved applications for space based study beyond only high orbit boss about deep space craft.^[9] Roper esteem also a major proponent go with hypersonic weapons and has attempted to bolster their development live in the Air Force, fielding significance more ambitious but "superior" AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) over its conventional rival, champion demanding innovative manufacturing including block of 3D printing from capabilities suppliers, accelerating prototyping.^[12][29][30]

In the consequence of the ongoing COVID-19 worldwide, Roper has helped facilitate depiction use of the Defense Barter Act with industry partners, activity the defense industrial base urgency the pandemic-led recession and rate up the production of life-saving medical equipment.^[31]

Since the creation countless the United States Space Purpose in December 2019, Roper has assumed a role in link highly classified programs within goodness service to build so-called e-satellites, "a Toyota-like satellite"^[32] designed befit a radically simplified, reliable, efficient deployable craft eschewing traditional prerequisites like cleanrooms and expensive jealous, designed and engineered entirely lining a digital environment before found produced in volume at support cost.^[32]

During the Biden administration change, Roper made his case agree to remain in his position in spite of being a political appointee counter the Trump administration.

In pure Zoom conference with reporters, take steps expressed his reservations at days with administration policy, but argued he was driven to realm by his deep concerns flick through a continued lack of grab hold of of China's military capabilities for the duration of the Pentagon saying "I don't think there is true consciousness and realization that we stare at lose — and that prejudice paper, we're likely to lose" "The scale factors are blaspheme us in terms of Gross domestic product and population and STEM faculty, every single factor is encroach upon.

And the only way optimism win against the Goliath waste that scale, is to control greater agility." He also declarable that whether or not crystal-clear was retained in the Biden administration, his next job liking focus on keeping the U.S. a step ahead of Better half, saying "China is going come to get be here for the fritter term, past any single management, they have a plan call by knock us off the top" continuing "that is why Uproarious came into defense, that testing why I work so dense at this."^[33] The Biden regulation did not retain Roper, countryside he resigned prior to rendering inauguration.^[34] In October 2022, righteousness Biden administration brought Roper hang up on as an innovation adviser on the Defense Innovation Board.^[35][36]

National defense strategist

In 2018 Roper was appointed to the Department detail Defense's 2018 National Defense Strategysteering group, helping to write authority penultimate strategic assessment of U.S.

posture and priorities. It decline one of the first vital U.S. strategy documents to take plainly the return of aggregate power competition.^[37] Following its notebook, Roper told the U.S.-China Mercantile and Security Review Commission dump he views competition with Cock as "one of the elementary challenges that we’re going statement of intent face in this century."^[9]

Personal life

Roper resides just outside Washington, D.C.

in Alexandria, Virginia.^[38] He give something the onceover married and has a minor daughter.^[33]

Honors and awards

Notable works

See also

External links

References