NavalX announces second overseas location for Tech Bridge network

Photo By Elizabeth Mildenstein | NavalX announced the second overseas Tech Bridge location during a ceremony Nov. 4, at U.S. Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center located in Yokosuka, Japan. The primary sponsor is Ship Repair Facility Japan Regional Maintenance Center (SRF-JRMC) Yokosuka, and the Japan Tech Bridge Coalition will include additional government, academic and industry partners.  

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, JAPAN

11.04.2020

Story by Julie Lemmon 

NavalX

NavalX announced the second overseas Tech Bridge location on Nov. 4, at U.S. Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center located in Yokosuka, Japan.
The primary sponsor is Ship Repair Facility Japan Regional Maintenance Center (SRF-JRMC) Yokosuka, and the Japan Tech Bridge Coalition will include additional government, academic and industry partners.
Rear Adm. Eric Ver Hage, Commander, Navy Regional Maintenance Center and Director, Surface Ship Maintenance and Modernization stressed the importance of collaboration.
“Standing up a new Tech Bridge in Japan will help the Navy build an innovation ecosystem and strong partnership network in the region, increasing agility and rapidly delivering capabilities to operations in a highly contested AOR,” said Ver Hage. “We are better together.”
This partnership emphasizes the importance of mutually beneficial technology collaboration and the need to innovate together from initial development to deployment, according to NavalX director, Capt Ben Van Buskirk.
The Japan Tech Bridge will focus on enabling the agile adoption of technology through multiple efforts that span technology scanning and partnering to outreach and prize challenges, with the end goal to deliver capability to the warfighter.
“Our Naval X Tech Bridges are doing phenomenal work to develop cutting-edge capabilities for our Sailors and Marines—and explore new ideas in new settings around the world,” said Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, Chief of Naval Research. “The opening of the Tech Bridge in Japan is crucial to advancing our strong partnerships with thought leaders there, and will help us reimagine naval power moving forward.”
The newly established Tech Bridge will host information forums/seminars for both American and Japanese stakeholders, such as “How to do business with the U.S. Navy” and “Navigating the U.S. Navy research grants process.”
They will also hold a number of prize challenges targeting different parts of technology maturity.
The Japan Tech Bridge will build upon the U.S.-Japan Alliance and will create and strengthen partnerships with regional stakeholders to develop new commercial and defense solutions to naval and maritime challenges.
“The formation of the Japan Tech Bridge is yet another facet of a partnership that has a long and rich history,” said Capt. Les Sobol, Director, Task Force Integrated Air Missile Defense. “For more than 70 years, the U.S. - Japan Alliance has been and is the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, and the bond between our two navies is iron-clad. Whether we conduct exercises at sea, operate as a combined force, or join together to conduct humanitarian missions, our maritime cooperation continues to get stronger. Together, we share a vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific and work shoulder to shoulder to maintain security and stability in one of the world’s most important regions.”
“DoN teams are already improving their pivot speed using leading-edge methods to deliver bold, new capabilities at the speed of relevance for our Sailors and Marines. However, to fully harness existing authorities, resources and talent, we must form partnerships, which is what our Tech Bridges do,” Van Buskirk said.
“Strategically standing up a new Tech Bridge in Japan will give the region an opportunity to expedite modernization efforts reducing risk to critical operations in the region,” said David Anderson, Japan Tech Bridge Director. “It will also give the region more opportunities to address problem statements from a more holistic viewpoint, drastically increasing the impact of improvement and innovation initiatives.”
The Japan Tech Bridge is hosted at Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY) and sponsored by the Ship Repair Facility-Japan Regional Maintenance Center (SRF-JRMC). CFAY is the largest overseas U.S. Naval installation in the world and considered one of the most strategically important bases in the U.S. military. The sponsor command, SRF-JRMC is also the largest overseas U.S. Navy Ship Repair Facility in the world.

• Date Taken: 11.04.2020
• Date Posted: 01.30.2022 19:23
• Story ID: 413368
• Location: YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, JP