Evan Karlik

Assistant Program Manager, F-35 Joint Program Office

Evan Karlik is an aerospace engineering duty officer in the U.S. Navy, currently assigned as an assistant program manager for systems engineering at the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. He spent his early childhood in Western Samoa and the Philippines, and was later stationed in Hawaii as a Navy P-3 Orion maritime patrol pilot. While deployed, Evan flew missions from Sicily, southern Spain, Crete, and northern Scotland, and totaled nearly 350 combat flight hours from reconnaissance missions over northern Africa and the Sahel. He also conducted maritime intelligence collection in the eastern Mediterranean, responded to search-and-rescue calls, and supported several multinational and NATO naval exercises. In 2018, Evan served as defense fellow to Congressman Joe Courtney (D-CT) in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he assisted with Armed Services hearing preparation, speechwriting, mark-up of the FY19 National Defense Authorization Act, defense appropriations, and coordination between the congressional Friends of Australia Caucus and the Australian Embassy. He was a 2018-2019 nonresident national security fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and is a 2019 Israel Policy Forum Bronfman Convener. Evan received an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and holds graduate degrees from Stanford University and the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. His foreign policy writing has been published in Nikkei Asian Review, The Diplomat, Maritime Executive, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Strategist, and by the Center for International Maritime Security.