James LaCroix, a more than 35-year veteran of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center, has joined Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) as corporate director in charge of advanced technologies.
He will report to John Donnelly, vice president of the advanced technologies office at HII, and oversee its work with NUWC Newport Division and the Naval War College, the company said Friday.
LaCroix will also support research, development, experimentation and analytic as well as help transform technology concepts into operational systems for various clients.
“His extensive experience with unmanned undersea vehicles and torpedo development provides him with a deep understanding of the challenges of integrating unmanned system technologies into the fleet,” Donnelly said.
For the past decade, LaCroix directly worked with the Navy’s Undersea Weapons Program Office in torpedo acquisition programs.
He started his career as in 1980 as an NUWC intern and accepted a full-time position in the center’s torpedo department three years later. He also worked at the unmanned undersea vehicle branch there as a line supervisor.
