Mr. Alfred Kraft

Biography:

Al Kraft is a Senior Strategic Advisor at Sabre Systems LLC.  His engineering insights and extensive government and industry experience have informed and guided company decision making for the last 17 years. His strong advocacy for innovative science and technology efforts have helped shape Sabre’s transition from being mostly a technical services company to one that focuses on advanced technology solutions and products. Prior to that he spent over 30 years at the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) where he worked with every aviation platform, system, and weapon operated by the U.S Navy and Marine Corps (USMC) including related foreign military sales customers. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from VA Tech, an MS in Administration of Science and Technology from George Washington University and is a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College Program Manager Course and the Naval Aviation Executive Institute Materiel Professional Program.  He was a charter member of the Acquisition Professional Community and among a very small group of professionals to be DAWIA level 3 certified in almost all disciplines including "System Planning, Research, Development and Engineering -Systems Engineering" (SPRDE - SE), "Test and Evaluation" (T&E), "Life Cycle Logistics", "Information Technology", "Program Management", and "Business, Cost Estimating and Financial Management".

In the early to mid-1980's he served as F/A-18 lead engineer for all system support and test equipment and was integrally involved in facilitating the Navy’s first F/A-18 deployment on an aircraft carrier and first USMC deployment with that aircraft. He later became the head of the branch that handled all support and test equipment for every Navy and USMC aircraft. Among his many accomplishments over the years, he assisted USMC leadership with the organizational design for the Marine Corps Systems Command and related materiel and support Commands heavily modeled after work he had done with NAVAIR. He is a Plank Owner in NAVSEA’s PEO Aircraft Carriers and served as the first Senior Aviation Advisor to PEO Aircraft Carriers as well as the Aviation IPT Leader for the CVNX conceptual design studies which led to the CVN-78 Ford class aircraft carrier Milestone 1 decision. Subsequent positions included the Director of the NAVAIR Research and Engineering Group Staff Office and Senior Technical Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Commander for Research and Engineering where he led many special studies, special projects, and wide-ranging Navy initiatives to enhance war fighting capabilities.

Among his many awards are two NAVAIR Commander's Awards, the NAVAIR Quality of Work-life Award, a Navy Unit Commendation, PEO Aircraft Carriers Award of Merit for Group Achievement, two Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Awards, the Navy Superior Civilian, Service Award, the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award. 

Mr. Kraft was consistently recognized for his outstanding technical and managerial leadership throughout his 30+ year federal career.  His vision and guidance were instrumental in the development and implementation of critical transformational concepts such as the PEO Aircraft Carriers Aviation Integrated Product Team, the CVNX Next Generation Aircraft Carriers initiative, the Chief of Naval Operations’ Aircraft Productive Ratio project, and Naval Aviation’s Total Force Readiness Team efforts.   His leadership on these critical initiatives has benefited virtually every major aircraft program in Naval Aviation, both in terms of improvements to war fighting capability and in savings/cost avoidances of billions of dollars in future year procurements.  He was sought out and valued throughout the Services for his expert facilitation skills and ability to bring diverse groups together in the development and implementation of broad scope, major evolutionary changes such as Total Quality Leadership, the Naval Air Systems Command’s Competency Aligned Organization, and the reorganization of the Marine Corps Systems Command and associated Command relationships.  His dedication and “lead by example” ideology as the Director of the Naval Air Systems Command’s Research and Engineering Group Staff Office, and work as a Senior Advisor to the Assistant Commander for Research and Engineering were foundational and significant in making the Naval Air Systems Command a recognized provider of superior services and products to support world-wide Fleet operations.  Mr. Kraft’s major and far-reaching contributions will continue to have lasting impacts on Naval Aviation for years to come.  His vision, leadership, strength of character, and technical competency have been of immeasurable value to the United States Navy and the nation.