News
April 2026 — The Energetics Technology Center (ETC) is excited to welcome Phuong Nguyen to the ETC team as our new Junior Network Engineer!
Phuong joins us with a background in cybersecurity and a passion for hands-on learning and continuous improvement. In his role, he will support our network infrastructure through configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting, while also implementing security controls. Phuong will also assist senior engineers with documentation and network support tasks.
What excites Phuong most about joining ETC is the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a collaborative environment. He’s eager to continue building his troubleshooting skills while learning from the team.
Phuong brings experience with Linux systems, network segmentation, and system hardening. During college, he completed three internships and worked on a variety of technical ventures, including home lab projects. “Those experiences let me learn in different environments and helped me build strong hands-on skills,” Phuong shared.
Outside of work, Phuong enjoys improving his personal home network lab, where he experiments with new technologies and configurations. He also participates in cybersecurity capture the flag competitions and builds custom computers.
Fun fact: Phuong’s favorite podcast is Darknet Diaries, a series about real-world cybersecurity stories involving hacking, exploitation, and investigations.
We’re thrilled to have Phuong on board and look forward to the impact he’ll make!
Looking to join the ETC team? Read more about our open roles here: https://www.etcmd.com/careers/.
Other News
- Cyber SyncED: Expanding Cybersecurity Education for Every Student — December 2025
- Energetics Technology Center (ETC) Welcomes New Team Members to Strengthen STEM Innovation and Education Initiatives — November 2025
- Energetics Technology Center Welcomes New Talent Across STEM, Robotics, and Engineering — September 2025
- Congress Establishes Joint Energetics Transition Office — NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE on January 22, 2024
- The Pentagon is hurrying to find new explosives — THE ECONOMIST on January 17th
- ACMI Federal Secures $75 Million DoD Contract for Munitions Campus to Strengthen Munitions Supply Chain—PR NEWSWIRE/ACMI Federal on September 26, 2023
- Congress Adds Energetics, Critical Chemical Provisions to Defense Bill — NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE on August 18, 2023
- CL-20,Most powerful non nuclear explosive, 10 times more powerful than TNT—FP DEFENSE NEWS on August 15, 2023
- US Eyes More Powerful Explosives for Deadlier Weapons—The Defense Post on August 7, 2023
- Eyeing China in the Pacific, US studies explosives to make missiles fly farther—REUTERS on August 3rd, 2024
- CL-20: China reports to significantly improve world’s most powerful explosive—ONEINDIA NEWS, Some time in July of 2023
- Incorporation of CL-20 on Three Munitions Proposed by HASC Panel—DEFENSE DAILY on June 13, 2023
- Pioneered By US, Mastered By China! Chinese Scientists Claim Overtaking The US In Mastering World’s Most Powerful Explosive—EURASIAN TIMES on June 5, 2023
- China has made CL-20 5 times more shock resistant—INTERESTING ENGINEERING on June 3rd, 2023
- China has significantly enhanced safety of the world’s most powerful explosive: Report—WION on June 2, 2023
- China has tamed the world’s most powerful explosive, military scientists say—SOUTH CHINA OPENING POST on June 2, 2023
- Seeking a Bigger Bang, U.S. Invests in Advanced Explosives—WALL STREET JOURNAL on May 29, 2023
- CL-20 Used in Switchblade 300, May See Wider Use in JASSM-ER, LRASM, Other Munitions—DEFENSE DAILY on March 28, 2022
- In War with China, US Risks Being Beaten Over the Head With Its Own Explosive Technology—FORBES MAGAZINE on March 9, 2023
- Energetics Workforce Is Graying Out—NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE on June 28, 2022
- Energetics: Community Warns of Chinas’ Edge Developing Explosive Materials—NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE on June 27, 2022
- Energetics Supply Chain Called Fragile, Vulnerable—NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE on May 6, 2022
- U.S. Needs to Refocus on Energetic—NATIONAL DEFENSE MAGAZINE on March 30, 2022
- National Security Leaders to Discuss U.S. Innovation in Energetics—PURDUE NEWS on May 2, 2022
- A Critical Chemical Cautionary Tale …and The Moral of The Story—ETC NEWSLETTER on Dec 2022
- The Dragon’s Jaw Bridge: An Example Of Weapon Effectiveness—ETC NEWSLETTER on April 2021
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Insights
After DOT&E: Reforming Test and Evaluation for the Age of Lethality
by Dr. Marcus Jones
Executive Summary
This think-piece examines the implications and potential of the May 2025 directive reorganizing the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), a reform aimed at increasing agility, reducing bureaucratic friction, and focusing the Department of Defense’s test and evaluation (T&E) enterprise on its core statutory mission. The reorganization marks a turning point in the evolution of oversight and performance assessment for defense systems, one that invites fresh thinking about how best to align speed, innovation, and warfighter confidence. The urgency of this reform has now been explicitly acknowledged in Congress: the Senate’s FY26 NDAA includes a legislative proposal to establish an Alternative Test and Evaluation Pathway, initially scoped to software-intensive systems, that embodies many of the very principles advocated here: mission-focused evaluation, continuous feedback, early failure discovery, and decoupling from rigid documentation requirements.
Drawing on four decades of institutional experience, this paper explores the rationale for reimagining T&E as an integrated, continuous function grounded in mission context, powered by digital tools, and focused on fielding capabilities that are both effective and adaptable. It highlights how legacy structures, while built on good intentions, have often struggled to keep pace with the demands of software-defined systems, autonomous platforms, and modern joint operations.
The paper identifies key enablers that can help ensure the success of the current transformation: investment in digital test infrastructure, reinforcement of evaluation as a lifecycle function, preservation of transparent performance reporting, and the development of a modern T&E workforce. These steps are not about preserving legacy forms but about building a leaner, faster, and smarter T&E system aligned with emerging technologies and operational demands.