Speaker Biography

James Anderson

RN Account, lead Above Water and Aviation,

QinetiQ

James works across QinetiQ leading the RN account and business development in the Maritime space for Above Water and Aviation. This includes working across QinetiQ’s Global Campaigns, especially Test & Evaluation and Training to assure that they are aligned with, and delivering to the needs of the Navy. This has included leading on the proposition to deliver the support to the Carrier Strike Generation events in preparation for CSG21, Project Vampire flying UAS from the Prince of Wales and the Navy to support the Navy’s future T&E aspirations.

Until recently James has been seconded into the RN working within Develop where he acted as a SME on Future T&E capability and having jointly developed the future T&E strategy for the Navy actively driving the introduction of T3E into the Navy’s force generation and assurance process.

Previously as a Defence Evaluation Advisor in the Maritime Domain, James is responsible for providing advice and support to Royal Navy procurement teams during the development of Integrated Test, Evaluation and Acceptance plans as a tool to support the acceptance of Military Capability into service. This role also provides advice and guidance to the Royal Navy, and the wider stakeholder community, on how to maximise existing T&E capability whilst feeding into the future planning cycle to ensure that capabilities continue to meet the requirements of the future.

James led QinetiQ’s input with the Maritime Theatre Missile Defence Forum and At Sea Demonstration 15 from the first approach when the Forum started looking for a European Range to support the event in 2011 through to successful deliver of the event in 2015 and has remained engaged on subsequent Formidable Shield events. James worked with the Forum, especially the UK & US representatives, to develop a plan that maximised the use of Range capabilities and the work provided appropriate upgrades to ensure that an enduring capability exists to undertake complex international trials of this type in the future. Building on this he is still supporting the UK/US relationship in increasing the areas of test and evaluation that they are working on.

James has held a number of roles in MOD/DERA and QinetiQ since 1992. Initially as a Research Scientist on gas turbines before moving into project and program management within the research environment.

In 2010 James moved into business development focusing on the Royal Navy’s usage for Test, Evaluation and Training Support across the QinetiQ operated ranges, and has built on the relationship with the Navy working in the post he is now