January–September 2027
Executive development for accomplished professionals across military, government, industry and other sectors working on complex national-security challenges.
Preparing Leaders for Complex Decisions
The challenges leaders face today rarely come one at a time.
Imagine a rescue team searching for people after a major storm. Drones can survey areas responders cannot safely reach. Sensors can detect signs of activity. Artificial intelligence can analyze thousands of images far faster than a human team. But none of those capabilities answers the most important question on its own: Where should responders go first?
Leaders still have to determine whether the information is reliable, whether different technologies can connect and share information, what risks responders may encounter, and how to use limited people and equipment where they can make the greatest difference.
The setting may change, but the leadership challenge is increasingly common: How do you bring rapidly evolving technologies, specialized expertise, people and information together to achieve a critical goal?
The Aptera MvS Executive Program in Mission Capability Development, a partnership between Old Dominion University and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), prepares emerging senior leaders for that environment. The nine-month executive-development experience brings together Mission Engineering, emerging and disruptive technologies, policy, strategy and applied research.
At its center is decision-grade fluency: the depth of understanding leaders need to evaluate emerging technologies, recognize how changes in capabilities reshape risks and dependencies, identify new options, and make informed decisions about how those capabilities can be integrated at the mission level.
Participants also develop the perspective to account for organizational, cultural and policy factors when making and implementing those decisions.