The Honorable Nickolas Guertin

Nickolas H. Guertin was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition (ASN RD&A) on December 20, 2023. A Presidential appointee confirmed by the United States Senate, he leads the Department of the Navy’s (DON) Research, Development, Acquisition, and Sustainment programs and the DON’s contracting community. Prior to this role, Mr. Guertin served as the senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense on operational and live fire test and evaluation of Department of Defense weapon systems (Director, Operational Test and Evaluation). Mr. Guertin has an extensive four-decade combined military and civilian career in submarine operations; ship construction and maintenance; development and testing of weapons, sensors, combat management products including the improvement of systems engineering; and defense acquisition. Most recently, he has performed applied research for government and academia in software-reliant and cyber-physical systems at Carnegie M