UK AOC Newsletter - May 2010

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the UK Chapter was held in the Royal Air Force Club, London, on Tuesday 2 February 2010 and was attended by 34 members and guests.  

Following our recent UK Chapter elections, it was confirmed that Wynne Davies (Membership Secretary), Chris Howe (Vice President) and Roger Hannaford (Secretary) would continue in their posts for a further 3 years.

Although our current financial status is healthy with around £9,000 in the bank, a slowing declining income over the past few years, for a variety of reasons, is now causing the Chapter to operate with a small annual deficit. It was suggested that industry might be encouraged to contribute by sponsorship towards the cost of the two major annual events: the UK Chapter AGM and the Christmas Dinner. Any such offers of help would therefore be much appreciated. All other UK Chapter events are self-financing.

After the formal conduct of the AGM, we were delighted to welcome Lt Cdr Steven Gilmore RN who gave a fascinating presentation on his Defence Academy MSc thesis entitled ‘Investigations into the Impact of Windfarms on Signal Propagation’.

VISIT TO HMS DAUNTLESS, PORTSMOUTH NAVEL BASE 23 JUNE 2010

With the raising of the white ensign, HMS DAUNTLESS joined the Royal Navy on 3 December 2009. The navy’s latest and most impressive Type 45 air defence destroyer, DAUNTLESS has now kindly agreed to host members of the UK Chapter for a 90-minute guided tour of the ship on 23 June 2010. The visit will commence at Unicorn Gate - the main gate to Portsmouth dockyard - at 0930 for a ship’s tour commencing at 1000. A visit to such a state of the art vessel during her operational work-up can only be conducted by very few and is therefore strictly limited to 20 visitors.

This visit is being organised by our Vice President, Chris Howe, and members wishing to attend should complete the attached proforma and return it to him by e-mail or snail mail as soon as possible. Places, as always, will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

VISITS AND EVENTS

The following visits and events are being arranged and details will be published as they become available:

THE EW MARKET

Forecast International's "The Market for Electronic Warfare Systems" projects an estimated US$28.4 billion will be spent over the next 10 years on the development and production of major EW systems. Some 44,807 units of electronic countermeasures (ECM), radar warning receivers (RWRs), electronic support measures (ESM) and other EW systems will be produced.

Today's EW market leaders are firmly established because of their ability to provide much-needed EW systems for immediate deployment to the battlefield. To cite just one example, despite some defence budget tightening, the Pentagon is expected to spend over US$560 million through to 2013 on procurement of Northrop Grumman's Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system for various USAF aircraft. This system is also now installed on RAF Merlin helicopters deployed to Afghanistan.

LIKE NUMBERS

The 513th Military Intelligence Brigade, US Army, is a tactical, theatre-level military intelligence brigade which consists of five battalions. The brigade conducts theatre-level multi-discipline intelligence, force projection, electronic warfare and information warfare operations in support of US Central Command by using tactically tailored, tiered deployment packages and split-based operations as required.

Meanwhile, the 513th Electronic Warfare Squadron, USAF, was activated at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on 23 April 2010 under the command of Lt Col Tim Welde. This unit, which presently numbers 32 but is expected to grow to 130 within a few years, will provide software support to the US Air Force, US Marines and US Navy force of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and generate the critical EW mission data sets for these new aircraft.

 Website: www.ukaoc.org

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