Transformation may be an accepted fact of life in the defense community, but the map to the final destination remains unfinished. Rather than leaving the force to strike out into uncharted territory, government and commercial technology experts are hard at work planning how the transformation can be enacted while the military continues its operational missions around the world.
Many of these experts will come together at the end of October both to flesh out new ideas and to offer potential solutions to the challenges facing the ongoing transformation. MILCOM 2004, co-sponsored by AFCEA International and the IEEE Communications Society, will feature leaders from the transformation community and the users who will put the transformation to the test in the field. The four-day event, running from October 31 through November 3 at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, California, will include a host of classified and unclassified panels and symposia supported by more than 100 exhibitors.
This year’s conference is titled “Harness the Power for Force Transformation.” It offers what may be as many as 1,500 attendees a glimpse of the long-term future of military communications and information systems as well as a number of potential paths to those goals.
MILCOM’s program reflects the complexity and the importance of the transformation challenge. The event features a stellar roster of speakers and panelists from diverse backgrounds. Top-ranking generals and admirals from the services are teaming with leading civilian Defense Department officials, prominent private sector executives and engineers, and foremost representatives of academia.
This broad base of expertise hopes to explore a variety of potential solutions to interoperability challenges across the breadth of the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C
4ISR) community. Topics include satellite communications, the Global Information Grid, the Joint Tactical Radio System, information infrastructure security and NATO transformation issues, to name a few.
To present and discuss these topics, MILCOM 2004 offers a multi-tiered menu of events. Panel discussions provide audiences with the opportunity to hear informed commentary and descriptions of major programs and issues. Complementing panels are sessions that are more specific in their issue coverage and shorter than panels. And, to cover the full range of vital subjects, both classified and unclassified tracks are provided for both panels and sessions. The classified panels and sessions are being held at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.
In addition to its presence at panels and sessions, the influence of academia can be felt in tutorials taking place throughout MILCOM. These tutorials, which are offered at additional cost, are structured to take a teacher-student approach to presentations. And, as always, the conference includes paper presentations.
The headline events at MILCOM may well be the individual speakers. Plenary sessions and luncheons present top military and civilian defense officials providing vital insight into the issues confronting transformation. Leading off the speaker lineup will be Monday’s plenary session speaker, Gen. Lance W. Lord, USAF, commander, Air Force Space Command. Less than four hours later, Vice Adm. James D. McArthur Jr., USN, commander, Naval Network Warfare Command, will address luncheon attendees.
Tuesday’s events will begin with a plenary session address by Peter B. Teets, under secretary of the Air Force. The luncheon speaker that day is Lt. Gen. Steven W. Boutelle, USA, chief information officer/G-6, U.S. Army. As an added bonus, the Tuesday evening Chairman’s Banquet will feature Hall of Fame football star Joe Theismann.
Wednesday’s plenary session will explore the international aspects of transformation with an address by Adm. E.P. Giambastiani Jr., USN, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command. Invited to address the luncheon is Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, USMC, the immediate past commanding general of the 1st Marine Division and the nominee to be commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command.
Additional information on MILCOM 2004 is available at
www.milcom.org.
