New leadership will help guide 1,370+ member consortium collaborating with government to accelerate armaments innovation for America’s warfighters

SUMMERVILLE, S.C., Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The National Armaments Consortium (NAC) today announced the election of James Miller as Chairman of its Executive Committee, along with three new committee members who bring senior leadership experience from across the defense industrial base and academia.

Miller, Director of Business Development at Practical Energetics Research, Inc. (PER), returns to the Chairman role after previously leading the Executive Committee from 2020 to 2024. Joining him are Garry Haase of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GDOTS), James Lackey of Davidson Technologies, Inc., and Mala Sharma of the Applied Research Laboratory at The Pennsylvania State University.

The new leaders will help guide a consortium that now includes more than 1,370 organizations working across industry and academia to accelerate the development and delivery of critical armaments technologies. Miller and Lackey will represent small businesses on the committee, Haase will represent large businesses, and Sharma will represent academia.

“I am honored to once again have the opportunity to serve as Chairman of the NAC Executive Committee at such an important moment for our national defense,” said Miller. “The NAC has grown tremendously over the past few years. What makes this consortium special remains the same: bringing together defense innovators with our government partners to solve difficult problems and move critical capabilities into the hands of our warfighters faster. I look forward to working with my fellow ExCom members, NAC leadership and our government partners to strengthen the collaboration that has made the NAC the gold standard for OTA consortia.”

Miller brings decades of defense industry leadership and a longstanding commitment to the NAC. Before joining PER in 2024, he spent more than two decades as a senior leader at Dynetics, where he oversaw the company’s Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) activities. Most recently, Miller has served on the NAC ExCom since 2025 for a total of nine years of service to the organization.

New Members Bring Experience From Across the Armaments Enterprise

The three incoming ExCom members bring expertise spanning defense industry leadership, government acquisition, research and development, and academia:

• Garry Haase is Senior Director, Advanced Programs / Business Development at General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, where he leads strategic planning and new business development efforts and supports multiple lines of business as an Air Force weapons subject matter expert. Haase joined General Dynamics in 2022 following more than 27 years on active duty in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Colonel. His military career culminated as Director and Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base.
• James B. Lackey is Chief Operating Officer of Davidson Technologies, Inc., where he oversees the company’s business unit growth and corporate functions. Before entering industry, Lackey rose to the Senior Executive Service in the U.S. Army, where he managed a $2.5 billion annual operating budget and a 9,000-member engineering workforce. He also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Director for Air Warfare major acquisition programs and led aviation and weapons development programs at Naval Air Systems Command.
• Dr. Mala M. Sharma, Ph.D. is Associate Research Professor and Division Head of Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University’s Applied Research Laboratory, where she leads research supporting national defense priorities. Sharma brings more than 25 years of experience across academia, government-sponsored research and industry collaboration, including 18 years as a faculty member at Bucknell University.

“Garry, James, and Mala bring the depth of expertise and diverse perspectives that make the NAC Executive Committee so effective,” said Ben Harris, Executive Director of the National Armaments Consortium. “Their experience across large and small businesses, government, and academia reflects the diversity of our membership and will be invaluable as we work with our government partners to move faster, strengthen the defense industrial base, and deliver cutting-edge warfighting capabilities.”

The full National Armaments Consortium Executive Committee includes:

• James Miller, NAC Chair, Practical Energetics Research (PER)
• Jonathan Carroll, RTX
• Steven Cummings, Day & Zimmermann
• Steve Dart, DetTX
• Paritosh Dave, Leidos
• Rollie Dohrn, Jr., Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems
• Michael George, Eoptic, Inc.
• Jason Gilliam, Monte Sano Research Corporation
• Garry Haase, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GDOTS)
• Scott Hyde, Applied Research Associates (ARA)
• James Lackey, Davidson Technologies, Inc.
• David Robinson, Corvid Technologies and Corvid Cyberdefense
• Mala Sharma, Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University

About the NAC

The National Armaments Consortium (NAC) is one of the largest collaborative organizations working with the Pentagon to develop armament technologies in support of our national security. The NAC’s focus: transitioning technology to the warfighter fast; promoting innovation; recruiting a community of world-class technologists; encouraging collaboration with government, industry, and academia; removing barriers; promoting nontraditional defense contractor contributions and participation; promoting and enabling the industrial base; supporting the nation’s equities in RD&A, OTA, and future capabilities.

For more information about NAC, please visit www.nacconsortium.org.

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SOURCE National Armaments Consortium