Welcome to the DEFAERO Andy Marshall Strategy Series, our discussion with leading thinkers on security, business and technology. Our guest is Mike Petters is president and CEO of Huntington Ingalls Industries, America’s largest military shipbuilding company.

Petters previously served as president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and as president of Northrop Grumman’s Newport News sector. He joined Newport News Shipbuilding in 1987 in the Los Angeles-class submarine construction division. He held a number of increasingly responsible positions throughout the organization, including production supervisor for submarines, marketing manager for submarines and carriers, vice president of aircraft carrier programs, vice president of contracts and pricing, and vice president of human resources.

This conversation is part of a series on strategists and strategy devoted to the memory of one of the nation’s greatest national security strategists, Andy Marshall, the former director of the Pentagon’s office of net assessment and sponsored by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.