Building a Capable and Trusted Drone Ecosystem for the US and Our Partners

Sean Anderson is a Project Manager in the Defense Innovation Unit's Autonomy Portfolio. As a PM, Sean leads DoD prototyping efforts of various small Unmanned Aerial Systems, Artificial Intelligence enabled robot teams and Construction Scale Additive Manufacturing systems.

Sean is an US Air Force veteran of 12 years, with 7 combat deployments to South-east Asia, Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq. Sean graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 2009.

Mr. Joel A. Castillo has over 30 years of management experience in Air Traffic Control, Airspace, Unmanned Traffic Management, Technology, and UAS Integration both in his military service and industry. As a retired Naval Officer, he served on multiple deployments, operations, and campaigns and managed the busiest most complex Airspace and Air Traffic Control facilities in the Department of Defense. After retirement Mr. Castillo entered the private sector holding positions as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer in managed service provider (MSP) delivering network, application, infrastructure and security to hundreds of business. In his current position he combines his vast military experience, airspace integration, and technology to support the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OUSD(A&S) as the Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Robotic and Autonomous Systems senior officer for Corvid Technologies. Mr. Castillo has been instrumental in the DoD’s effort in Blue UAS and UAS integration via Unmanned Traffic Management.

DoD HQE working on Blue UAS at Defense Innovation Unit.

Jason Kirkpatrick has been the USACE Aviation and Remote Systems Program Manager since October of 2017. Prior to joining USACE, Jason was the System Safety Manager for the Army’s PM UAS. He helped manage the safety case and material release of multiple systems including the Shadow Tactical UAS, the Gray Eagle, Hunter, Raven, Puma, and a variety of test or limited development assets. While at PM UAS, he also participated in the development and implementation of a casualty expectation modeling standard to facilitate the risk management associate with domestic tactical UAS flights. Jason also has 23 years of experience in the Army and Air Force Reserve as both a helicopter instructor and maintenance test pilot and as a C-130H2 Aircraft Commander.  He has two children; Will, a sailor in the Nuclear Navy (submarine service) , and Sara, a second year student at the University of Minnesota School of Law. Jason lives in Huntsville, Alabama, with his wife Sharon.