2025 Awardee

Richard Carroll

for outstanding performance as the Submarine Force Executive Director.

Richard Carroll has a lifetime as a pioneering defense innovator, entrepreneur, and national policy leader whose four-decade career has established enduring models for integrating innovation into national security missions, leaving a lasting legacy in U.S. undersea warfare. Beginning in 1982, Mr. Carroll led the development of the Multipurpose Processor through a Navy Small Business Innovation Research award. At a time when the Navy relied on single-vendor militarized systems, he introduced a new idea — an independent integrator model that leveraged commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) processors and modular software layers to allow multiple vendors to contribute interoperable components and deliver rapid upgrades. This approach became the foundation of the Navy’s Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion (ARCI) program, which institutionalized open architecture, predictable technology refreshes, and rapid delivery of new capabilities across the submarine fleet. Mr. Carroll later extended the independent-integrator concept into digital engineering and automated testing, developing virtual environments with Navy warfare systems that enable continuous automated integration, testing, rapid capability delivery, and training with multiple vendor systems and kill chains. In 2023, he founded the Creative Defense Foundation (CDF) to connect national security agencies, Congress, and America’s most innovative entrepreneurs. CDF focuses on aligning defense investments with technological change and fostering collaboration across the public and private sectors. Through technical vision, entrepreneurial drive, and policy leadership, Richard Carroll built the architecture, culture, and institutions that continue to define innovation and accelerate the delivery of new capabilities across the U.S. defense ecosystem.

Mr. Carroll is most deserving of recognition by the Naval Submarine League to receive the 2025 Distinguished Civilian Award.