Fueling maritime manufacturing with a whole-of-nation effort

From shipyards to suppliers, it will take an all-hands effort to build the Navy’s future fleet. Earlier this year, you learned about how BlueForge Alliance is working with the Navy to strengthen the defense industrial base (and if you missed it, you can still catch up!). In Part II: The Power of Public-Private Partnerships, taking place October 21 at 12 PM ET, John Mogford, EVP, Strategy & Technology, BlueForge Alliance will take us further inside the alliance driving America’s shipbuilding future. Explore topics including:

• How BlueForge + Navy is driving scale, speed, and access
• What the BFA Alliance is – and why it matters
• How advanced manufacturing, supplier development, and workforce initiatives are fueling change

Speaker

 

Jon Mogford
EVP, Strategy & Technology
BlueForge Alliance

Jon Mogford, PhD, joined BlueForge Alliance in August of 2025 as executive vice president for Strategy and Technology. In this role, he provides strategic planning leadership for BlueForge work in applying supply chain, workforce development and training and technology integration into the Defense Industrial Base.

Prior to joining BlueForge, Dr. Mogford led a range of science & technology organizations including a mission-driven federal office focused on high-risk/high-reward programs and a large academic research enterprise. His federal service includes stints as a program manager (2005-2009) and deputy director (2009-2011) of the DARPA/Defense Sciences Office (DSO). He also recently served as deputy chief of commercial strategy in the DARPA Director’s Office (2023-2024) before recruitment into the executive office of the president (2024-2025).

DARPA/DSO programs spanned all disciplines including materials, manufacturing, quantum physics, pure mathematics, neurosciences, and biomedical technology. As DSO Deputy Director, he supported more than 20 program managers and orchestrated office investments ranging from the fundamental sciences to commercial transition efforts for both defense and non-defense applications.

From 2013-2021, Dr. Mogford served as vice chancellor for research for the Texas A&M University System providing R&D leadership to the system’s eleven universities and eight state agencies encompassing 25,000 faculty and staff and research expenditures of 1 billion annually. In this role, he led the establishment of System-level Master Research Agreements with multiple partners including IBM, Philips Healthcare, Kubota, 3M, and Facebook.