NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER AIRCRAFT DIVISION, St. Inigoes, Md. – One Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Webster Outlying Field (NAWCAD WOLF) employee was inducted into the NAWCAD Associate Fellows program in a ceremony held June 4 in Patuxent River, Maryland.
A recognition that includes the top three percent of NAWCAD engineers, this year’s NAWCAD WOLF Associate Fellow is Christina Bridges, a systems engineer who supports the Special Communications Mission Solutions (SCMS) division.
“Christina consistently demonstrates the desired behaviors associated with our command’s strategic imperatives; a commitment to continuous learning, genuine curiosity, and innovation in the face of evolving circumstances,” said NAWCAD WOLF Executive Director Blaine Summers. “This recognition acknowledges her commitment to excellence, and we are grateful for her service to our mission.”
NAWCAD Associate Fellows are part of a three-tiered peer-recognition program. As technical professionals, they are typically recognized as leading experts in their fields and have achieved recognition outside NAWCAD by publishing theses, papers, and technical reports during their careers. Associate Fellows have typically made original, key contributions to the success of NAWCAD in its mission to support and enhance warfighting capability.
Bridges develops the tailored Systems Engineering (SE) processes in use at the SCMS division of NAWCAD WOLF. She specifically tailors and crafts these SE processes to support the rapid development, production, and fielding of Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems.
She leads the efforts to harmonize cybersecurity engineering, risk, and other acquisition activities and events with the SCMS rapid SE process. Her recent focus is on the application and use of model-based tools and techniques leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning as they can be applied to Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) based C5ISR system development.
“This award allows me to step back and look at my career as an engineer where I loved solving problems and seeing the designs come alive to serve their purpose successfully,” said Bridges. “It is my greatest honor to continue to lead teams and deliver safe, secure, reliable, and innovative systems to the warfighter.”
As an embedded SE subject matter expert for several modular, deployable systems that extend C5ISR capabilities in theater, she leads the engineering team in providing technical assessments and designing solutions. The Tactical Local Area Network family of systems are critical capabilities for special operations communications in locations across the globe.
When presented with a potential issue, Bridges evaluated different solutions, focusing on cost, performance, and risk. She developed test plans and requirements traceable to test procedures of leading COTS systems as acquisition strategy efforts and recommended a science and technology spinoff program of one of the potential solutions as an alternative end user computing device with the power of a server laptop in a size as small as a personal mobile device.
Bridges served in government project lead and co-design engineering lead roles for the T-45C Heads-Up Display’s (HUD) video camera system. Bridges restructured the team and design approach, developing two unique designs to reduce risk. She served as sole author for several technical and acquisition documents related to the T-45C HUD, and her leadership contributed to the design team’s selection for a 2021 NAWCAD Commander’s award and a 2022 NAVAIR Commander’s Heinemann award recipient for innovative design, speed to fleet, and cost savings of the T-45C HUD video camera system.
NAWCAD WOLF develops and delivers airborne, shipboard, and shore-based organic solutions through rapid engineering, integration, installation, and sustainment for DOD, Navy, intelligence, and homeland security missions anywhere around the world.
For more information, please visit: www.navair.navy.mil/nawcad/NAWCAD-Webster-Outlying-Field-WOLF.