Dr. Mark Couch is the Warfare Area Lead for Live Fire Test and Evaluation (LFT&E) in the Operational Evaluation Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA).  He supports a variety of projects in LFT&E, most notably fixed and rotary wing aircraft programs and Joint Live Fire programs.  In 2009, he analyzed aircraft combat and safety data from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts as part of a congressionally mandated study.  His analyses and recommendations from this study were used by the Services to implement improvements in aircraft survivability and crew protection.

Prior to joining IDA in 2007, he enjoyed a 23-year career in the Navy flying the MH-53E helicopter, serving on several major staffs, and teaching courses in Aeronautical Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School, including Aircraft Combat Survivability.  He received his doctorate in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2003 with his dissertation in rotary wing unsteady aerodynamics. He is a member of the Executive Board for the Combat Survivability Division of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), where he chairs the Strategic Planning Committee and will serve as the chair of the 2020 Aircraft Survivability Symposium. 

In his off-time, he and his wife, Pam, are the senior pastors of the Vineyard Church in Manassas, Virginia.