David Jarvis

David Jarvis CBE CEng FIET served for thirty six years in the Royal Navy as a submarine weapons engineer. His last post in the service was as the Chief Strategic Systems Executive, being both the UK project officer for the Polaris Sales Agreement and responsible for the assurance of continuous at-sea deterrence. Concurrently he held the post of director of Strategic Weapons Systems charged with the provision and support of the UK Trident II D5 system.

After leaving the Royal Navy he was Lockheed Martin UK’s Strategic Systems Advisor, and set up UK PONI in 2010 serving as its first Director. He now provides independent support to HM Government.

While in uniform he created and led a specialist expert team to research future nuclear deterrence options - the findings of which informed a White Paper on replacing Trident. He thereby became part of the initial programme for a potential successor SSBN. He also created and directed a Deterrence Customer Group in the MoD's Equipment Capability area for the current and future deterrent.

Prior to that he served at US Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska as the UK and NATO targeting officer, was the Assistant Director for Nuclear Policy in the MoD, and spent time at sea in Polaris, Chevaline and Trident SSBNs.