NAVAIR

Capt. John K. Martins is the program manager for Air-to Air Missile Systems Program Office, PMA-259, at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.

Martins graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. He was designated a naval flight officer in 1989, graduated first from the F-14 fleet replacement squadron and was assigned to the Jolly Rogers of Fighter Squadron 84 deployed on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during Operation Desert Storm combat over Iraq.

He was selected to attend TOPGUN as a student and subsequently invited back as an instructor where he taught graduate strike fighter tactics and was the staff electronic warfare expert.

After selection to U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, he was the lead F-14 Upgrade project officer at the F-14 Developmental Test Squadron in Point Mugu, Calif. He returned to the fleet as the wartime operations officer in Strike Fighter Squadron 32 (VFA-32) deployed on board the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) during Operations Desert Fox combat over Iraq and was the first F-14 crew to successfully employ laser guided munitions in combat.


From his subsequent shore assignment at the War College, Martins was selected as an associate fellow on the Chief of Naval Operations’ Strategic Studies Group, tasked to develop the Navy’s FORCEnet and Sea Power 21 Visions. He was then assigned as a policy analyst in the White House Drug Office, engaged in the war against drugs while fulfilling a simultaneous assignment as the officer in charge of the Navy Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

After designation as an Aviation Engineering Duty Officer, he was assigned as a deputy program manager in the F/A-18 and EA-18G Program Office, PMA-265, as the lead of the weapons system integration team and also the lead of the advanced development group that developed the F/A-18 Network Centric Vision and Flight Plan.

He then served in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Office as the director of the air vehicle team responsible for all aspects of the three JSF variants being produced for three U.S. services, eight partner nations and multiple Foreign Military Sales countries. During this tour, he directed the roll-out, first flight, delivery and flight tests of all three models as well as achieving program milestones such as supersonic flight, aerial refueling, air starts and the first vertical landing of the short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant.

Martins graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, with distinction from the University of Tennessee with a Master of Science in Aviation Systems, and with distinction from the Naval War College with a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies. He has logged more 2,000 hours in 14 types of military aircraft, 350 carrier landings, 51 combat missions, more 1,000 hours as a private pilot and is certified to level three in program management.