Timothy S. Matthews

Rear Admiral Timothy Stirling Matthews (born 1958) is a former United States Navy admiral. His naval career began in 1982 and spanned almost 32 years. In early 2014, he retired from the Navy and later joined Lockheed Martin, providing aviation sustainment operations support to the US military.

Early life and education Timothy Stirling Matthews was born in 1958. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering.

On 17 August 2007 Matthews assumed command of the Fleet Readiness Center Southeast. In August 2009, he became the commander, Fleet Readiness Centers and NAVAIR Assistant Commander for Logistics and Industrial Operations.

His final assignment, in August 2011, was as director of the Fleet Readiness Division. Ultimately, the political crisis was resolved by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, which ended sequestration and restored funding, but Matthews decided to retire. On 1 June 2014, Matthews joined Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, where he worked as vice president for F-35 Lightning II Sustainment Operations. In this role he oversaw the implementation of a suite of next generation analytics, using artificial intelligence and digital transformation technologies to improve the efficiency of aircraft sustainment activities for Lockheed Martin's F-35, C-130J Super Hercules and the LM-100J Hercules programs. The prospective payoff was huge; it was estimated that sustainment of the F-35 alone would cost more than $1 trillion. Matthews rejected an April 2019 proposal by William B. Roper Jr., the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics), for the government to reacquire intellectual property rights on military equipment so that sustainment activities could be carried out by the Air Force or contractors other than the aircraft manufacturer. "I’m more convinced than ever", Matthews said "that that would be a mistake."