JFCOM gets new experimentation chief

U.S. Joint Forces Command Chief Air Force Gen. Lance Smith has selected Rear Adm. Dan Davenport to lead the command’s joint innovation and experimentation directorate (J9), command officials said this week.Davenport will replace Rear Adm. James Winnefield, whose term expires later this year, according to command spokesman Lt. Jim Krohne. No exact date has been set for Davenport to assume his new post, Krohne said.The J9 directorate, with its subordinate Joint Futures Lab, is in charge of developing new “warfighting concepts” and technologies for the military, according to the JFCOM Web site.Many of the projects in the directorate incorporate the tenets of network-centric warfare. Most recently, officials from the J9 directorate tested a system during an exercise in Korea aimed at improving military logistics operations, according to the command Web site.Davenport has previously served as executive assistant for the chief of naval operations, according to a May 30 JFCOM statement. He also directed the Navy’s portion of the Pentagon’s 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review, the statement notes.Davenport is a 1980 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering and a master’s degree in operations analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School.