Strategic Pillars to Transform Test and Evaluation: Strategy Update and Implementation Plan

In 2022 the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), Office of the Secretary of Defense, published a Strategy Update, which he referred to multiple times in his Annual Report to Congress, describing 5 pillars that will "transform T&E and enable delivery of the world’s most advanced warfighting capabilities at the speed of need." 

Join us as Dr. Sandra Hobson, Deputy Director, Office of the DOT&E, and her colleagues present this 6-webinar mini-series, providing an overview of the overall Strategy Update followed by a closer look at the individual strategic pillars. 

While U.S. forces remain dominant, no warfighting domain is uncontested. Improving survivability in these environments is an ever-changing area of our practice that is paramount to the Nation. Cyber, electromagnetic spectrum (EMS), and space threats are examples of tremendous current challenges to warfighting forces. In the near term, the T&E ecosystem must improve and expand its means of testing cyber and EMS survivability in mission scenarios, and replicating the space environment and space threats, both kinetic and non-kinetic. The acquisition community must dedicate more programmatic time and resources to assessing performance in contested environments.

Mr. Walrond joined DOT&E's Strategic Initiatives, Policy, and Emerging Technologies (SIPET) directorate as a Cyber advisor in April 2023. His primary responsibilities include policy and guidance development and managing DOT&E's cyber initiatives portfolio.  He previously served the DoD for over 39 years as a defense contractor and active-duty military.  As a contractor, he supported the Joint Technical Coordination Group for Munitions Effectiveness their development of a Cyber Joint Munitions Effectiveness Manual (JMEM) as well as the Joint Staff J7 in the development models and simulation for joint collective training.  Mr. Walrond is a retired Air Force Colonel who served 29 years engineering, planning, managing, developing, fielding, integration and operating command, control, communications, computers, cyberspace and intelligence (C5I) systems, modeling & simulation (M&S), and training capabilities in support of the DoD.

Mr. Walrond has earned a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at Virginia Tech.  Mr. Walrond is married with eight children, two who are still in the nest as teenagers, and is a proud grandparent of six.

Tyler Englestad, PhD, joined DOT&E’s Strategic Initiatives, Policy, and Emerging Technologies (SIPET) directorate as an emerging technologies advisor in February 2023. His primary responsibilities include resource and investment management, drafting vision and policy for broader systems-of-systems test and evaluation, enhancing intel support to acquisition, and maintaining Range-of-the-Future requirements. 

As a career DoD civilian, Dr. Englestad has held various positions within the Department including at Joint Staff J-5, the Navy Cyber Warfare Development Group, National Reconnaissance Office, and at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center. Additionally, Dr. Englestad previously taught as an adjunct professor, developed engineering short-courses for adult learners, and is regularly invited to peer-review scientific journal articles. 

Dr. Englestad earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Hypersonics, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He currently resides in Washington, DC with his wife and Goldendoodle.

Host:   Tim Leake, Professor of Test and Evaluation, DAU