WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon’s chief technology officer Mike Griffin, an outspoken advocate for space-based missile defense systems, and his deputy will resign effective July 10 to set up their own company, the director of the Missile Defense Agency said.
Griffin, the Defense Department’s undersecretary of defense for research and engineering since 2018, and his deputy, Lisa Porter, announced their decision at a staff meeting on Tuesday, Vice Admiral Jon Hill said, confirming a report by Inside Defense news service.
Griffin oversees the activities of Hill’s Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Innovation Unit and the DoD Laboratory enterprise.
He was previously chief executive of Schafer Corporation, a professional services provider in the national security sector, and also served as NASA administrator.
During the Reagan administration, he played a central role in the military’s Strategic Defense Initiative, an ambitious idea of space-based weaponry also known as “Star Wars.”
Porter was previously the first Director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and an official at NASA.
(Reporting by Mike Stone; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali; writing by David Shepardson; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
