Meet the Team: John Sullivan, Deputy Special Assistant for Navy Nuclear Weapon System Safety Policy

12 June 2025

From Thomas Jones

Meet John Sullivan, the deputy special assistant for navy nuclear weapon system safety policy at Strategic Systems Programs (SSP). As a former limited duty officer with the U.S. Navy, Sullivan has been working with SSP both inside and out for years.

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A native of Fairfax, Virginia, Sullivan wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do after graduating high school.

“I just knew – from what others were doing – that when you graduated high school in Fairfax County, you go to college,” Sullivan said.

For a time, he attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, but soon realized that further education wasn’t the path that called out to him.

“I realized college was not for me, and after my fourth semester, I started calling recruiters,” Sullivan said. “I ended up having a Navy recruiter show up at my house, and a week later I was in boot camp."

He completed boot camp in 1996, and shortly after began work on USS Maine (SSBN 741), a ballistic missile submarine, where he quickly found his calling.

“I went into submarines, and started thinking ‘I actually like this,’” Sullivan said. “I fell in love with it.”

Sullivan spent his enlisted career as a torpedoman’s mate, eventually rising to become chief torpedoman on USS Montpelier (SSN 765). He also spent some time on shore duty at Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C., where he worked on the advanced undersea systems program.

In 2008, after 12 years in enlisted service, Sullivan was commissioned as a limited duty officer.

“My first commission tour was on a submarine tender, USS Frank Cable (AS 40), in Guam,” he said. “I was the weapons handling officer, the crane certification officer, and held other job titles too. They had me doing a little bit of everything.”

After his time in Guam, Sullivan served as the antiterrorism officer at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and then went on to USS Maryland (SSBN 738), where he served as the assistant weapons officer. In 2016 – now 20 years into his naval career – Sullivan came to SSP for the first time.

“I’d heard of SSP, I knew that the SSBNs answered to them, so when I had an opportunity to come on as part of the staff, I was super excited,” Sullivan said. “When I got here, I was placed in the Nuclear Weapons Surety Branch, where I served as the nuclear weapons safety officer.”

Sullivan was stationed at SSP for two years before rotating to a new three-year assignment at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. He retired from active-duty service in 2021 and transitioned to federal service as a civilian for SSP. He joined the command as a program analyst and supported nuclear weapons safety initiatives.

“As an initial program analyst, I assisted the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP) manager with his day-to-day responsibilities,” Sullivan said. “PRP is the mandatory reliability program for anyone around nuclear weapons. Our main responsibility is to provide policy clarification and assist with creating instructions. Anyone under the Navy nuclear weapons PRP knows who we are.”

Today, Sullivan is the section head of the very billet he previously supported as an officer in the Navy.

“Here I am, after retirement, in this position, because I absolutely love the organization,” Sullivan said. “The work we do has a direct impact on day-to-day operations regarding our management of nuclear weapons safety policy and nuclear weapons PRP policy. In my opinion, we’re a pretty big deal.”

Tom Jones, Director, Nuclear Weapons Surety Policy and Compliance at SSP, recognized John’s value during his initial stint at SSP. “I personally sought John out following his retirement from active duty to our team. He not only possesses an incredible wealth of knowledge and experience, but he is a proven leader and highly committed to the program,” Jones said.

“John performs a critical role in the Navy Nuclear Deterrent Mission. As the Navy’s Program Manager for the PRP, he ensures policy, requirements, and standards are established and maintained which keep those in critical jobs at the highest state of mental readiness,” Jones continued. “He continues to prove his value every day.”

According to Sullivan, one of the most rewarding things about working for SSP are his colleagues.

“The people are amazing. Sometimes the job is tough, and we feel like we have way more to do than we have time in the day to do it, but the people, and their love for the mission – their desire to do good – make it a joy to come into the office. I couldn’t imagine doing the work we do without the people we have here. The Admiral says we’re a family, and he has instilled that culture in all of us here at SSP. That carries a lot of weight. It contributes to people wanting to be here, me being one of them.”

SSP is the Navy command responsible for sustaining strategic weapon system (SWS) on the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) and supporting the integration of the D5LE weapon system on the new Columbia-class SSBNs. Looking to the future, SSP is integral to nuclear triad modernization with the development of the D5LE2 SWS and creating regional strike capabilities with the development of the nuclear sea launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) and the non-nuclear hypersonic conventional prompt strike system (CPS).

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Meet the Team: John Sullivan, Deputy Special Assistant for Navy Nuclear Weapon System Safety Policy

From Thomas Jones