Air Force communications expert to speak at Military Technologies Conference
BOSTON - Wayne Bonser, Technical Advisor for the Connectivity Branch, at the Air Force Research Lab's (AFRL) Information Directorate in Rome, N.Y., will discuss "Future Capabilities for the JTRS Community" at the Military Technologies Conference March 15-16 at the Hyatt Regency in Boston.
The Military Technologies Conference, sponsored by Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, highlights business opportunities and technological solutions in three modules: Command and Control: Sensor Fusion; Transformational Communications; and Directed-Energy Weapons.
Bonser is leading the Transformational Communications module. Below is a synopsis of his talk.
"AFRL research and development investments via the 1980's Integrated Communications Navigation Identification Avionics (ICNIA) and 1990's SPEAKeasy efforts led to the current OSD Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) acquisitions programs," Bonser writes.
"AFRL is approaching the development of future military communications capabilities with the paradigm that JTRS can be thought of as 'the PC of the radio world' providing diverse and individually tailored capabilities beyond existing communications functions. Using its own 'in-house' developed software radio testbed, AFRL is currently evolving hardware and software enhancements, for software defined radios, that will enable significant improvements in communications as well as dramatic changes in operational concepts."
Other speakers in this module include Bruce Fette, Chief Scientist, Communication Networks/General Dynamics C4 Systems who will speak on spectrum utilization and cognitive radio; Paul Ekman, director, JTRS Solutions and Band Engineering, Rockwell Collins, who will discuss software defined radio and waveforms; Manual Uhm, DSP marketing manager at Xilinx Inc., who will present on the advantages of FPGAs for Software Defined Radio; Reese Bovard, director, application engineering services, Spectrum Signal Processing, who will speak on the application of SCA 3.0 in advanced MILSATCOM applications; and Ric VanderMeulen, director of ViaSat's Government Broadband Group will speak discuss TCP/IP for Satellite Communications.
Leading the Command and Control: Sensor Fusion module is Dr. Paul Phister, air and space strategic planner at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Information Directorate, Rome, New York.
Also highlighting this module are: John Johnson, vice president of advanced development programs, Northrop Grumman Corp., who will speak on how to blend, make sense of, and present the information from sensors and other sources of information; and Roger Joel, vice president of sales and marketing, Octec, LTD., who will be speaking on the latest solutions for combining information real-time video tracking and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors for sensor fusion and command and control.
Leading the Directed Energy module is Dr. Roy Hamil, technical advisor, Laser Division at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate in at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
Other speakers in this module are Dr. Jackie Gish, director of directed energy technology at Northrop Grumman Space Technology; Dr. Bryce Sampson, vice president, business development at Nufern, on Fiber lasers: An Emerging High-Power Laser Technology for Military Directed-Energy Applications and a speaker from Raytheon Missile Systems in Tuscon, Ariz., on thermal management issues.
The Military Technologies Conference, which details the hottest and most promising technologies that will make military transformation a reality, is for program managers, engineering managers, and engineers at prime defense contractors as well as second- and third-tier military subcontractors.
The conference's three modules reflect three of the most pivotal technologies for leading the U.S. military into the 21st century and for transforming it from an industrial-age to an information-age force.
Module 1, Command and Control: Sensor Fusion, is about the technological road to real-time shared situational awareness, which is the very foundation of the ability to deploy small, fast, and lethal military forces in future conflicts.
Module 2, Transformational Communications, is about the technologies involved with rapidly channeling situational awareness knowledge to the commanders who can benefit most from this knowledge.
Module 3, Directed Energy, concerns the different types of laser technology and the challenges for getting laser weapons in the hands of the warfighter.
The conference advisory board features industry heavyweights who are helping guide the conference agenda and speaker presentations. Board members include Steve Blackman of Wind River Systems; Joe Chapman of the DOD Defense Standardization Program; Eric Gullickson of Venture Development Corp.; Roy Keeler of Radstone Technology Corp.; Jerry Krasner of Embedded Market Forecasters; Michael O'Connor of Nufern; Greg Saunders, director of the U.S. Defense Standardization Program Office; Dave Strobel of Space Micro Inc.; and Manual Uhm of Xilinx.
The Military Technologies Conferences charts the technological roadmap of the U.S. military's transformation to a more rapidly deployable and responsive force, is a revamping and overhaul of the Military & Aerospace Electronics Show. Its content is based on extensive industry research to provide attendees precisely what they need in a technical conference.
Presentations geared specifically for program managers, engineering managers, and engineers at first- second- and third-tier defense contractors who need to understand the programs, opportunities, and enabling technologies involved with military transformation.
"The Military Technologies Conference is a new view on force transformation from a technological perspective," explains Dave Janoff, senior vice president of the PennWell Corp. Communications and Optoelectronics Group in Nashua, N.H.
"It is organized to specifically inform the military, engineering, and manufacturing communities, and provide them with accurate and up-to-date information from all levels of the supply chain," Janoff says.
"The Military Technologies Conference is a technological roadmap to transformation," says Ron Mastro, publisher of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine. "It will translate planning for transformation into concrete technologies employing integrated electronic and optoelectronic systems that will be necessary to make transformation a reality."
For more information on attending the Military Technologies Conference, contact conference manager Allison Foster by phone at 918-831-9443 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Also visit the conference page on the World Wide Web at www.miltechconference.com.
To register for the conference online, please click here, and click on "New User" at the bottom of the page.
By John McHale
Executive Editor, Military & Aerospace Electronics
