Mr. Melvin Capps served as a program director and principal technical advisor for the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command for advanced research and development plans and programs for strategic and tactical survivability, lethality, advanced materials, and power technology from 1985 to August 1994.
After initial assignment to the Nike-X Project Office (a predecessor to USASDC) in 1963 as a first lieutenant, Melvin Capps began his civilian career in the same office in 1966. A nationally recognized authority on lethality and survivability related to theater and strategic defense, for over four decades, his vast experience and keen insight have provided a unique ability to identify novel and cost effective approaches for resolving critical issues and highly complex challenges associated with ballistic missile defense. His technical and managerial accomplishments resulted in his being selected to lead the Survivability, Lethality, and Key Technologies (SLKT) Directorate when it was established in 1986 within the Strategic Defense Command (SOC.) Under the leadership of Mr. Capps, survivability efforts in support of National Defense created high fidelity simulations of stressing nuclear environments and equipment responses to these environments. Another major success of Mr. Capps was the development in 1994 of a Hardware-InThe-Loop (HWIL) facility, dedicated to developing and demonstrating the means to defeat anti-radiation missiles, under controlled laboratory conditions, before conducting expensive field tests. In the Lethality program, Mr. Capp’s achievements include developing kill mechanisms for kinetic energy weapons for both strategic and tactical systems. During his distinguished government career, Mr. Capps was widely recognized for providing an outstanding, professional, and challenging work environment for his employees. He was the 29th member of the Space and Missile Defense Wall of Honor
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