UK AOC Newsletter - November 2009 |
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ELECTION TIME The positions of AOC UK Chapter Vice President (Chris Howe), Secretary (Roger Hannaford) and Membership Secretary (Wynne Davies) are due for election in 2010. Nominations for these positions are invited from the UK Chapter membership by the completion and submission of the nomination forms. In accordance with the Constitution of the UK Chapter, nominations for these positions shall each be supported in writing by no less than three full members of the Chapter. All nominations must be validated by the nominee's agreement, in writing, to stand and should be submitted by 30 November 2009 to Peter Nunn, Chairman of the Nominations Committee, at: 1 The Cottages, VISIT TO ABACUS EW CONSULTANCY & SELEX GALILEOOn 13 October 2009 nineteen members of the UK Chapter visited Abacus EW Consultancy Limited and SELEX Galileo’s Electronic Warfare Operational Support (EWOS) facility, both in Lincoln. During the morning at Abacus EW Consultancy we were given very comprehensive briefings on the company’s extensive radar and communications ESM training capabilities and their associated EW databases. These included demonstrations of their very advanced training tools and live intercept equipment. Abacus will be launching their new EW Planning Tool on 10 December 2009 and a limited number of places are still available should you wish to attend. This new tool covers ESM Deployment Planning, Communications Jamming, Communications Planning, GSM Planning, RCIED Mission Management and EW Mission Briefing. Please contact Abacus if you are interested. During the afternoon, having moved to SELEX where we enjoyed a splendid buffet lunch on arrival, we were given an overview briefing of the SELEX Galileo organisation and the rationale and plans for the Lincoln EWOS facility. We then toured the facility, including the RF screened laboratory and training rooms, and were briefed on HORUS, their latest generation Mission Data Preparation Package. We were also given technology update briefs on the Sky Shadow 2 Mid-Life Update for Tornado and the new generation SEER digital Radar Warning Receiver. We are very grateful to Paul Burrows at Abacus EW Consultancy and Wynne and Phil Davies (no relation!) at SELEX Galileo and their respective supporting teams for hosting a very informative, interesting and well organised visit and for their generous hospitality throughout. VISITS AND EVENTS The following visits and events are being arranged and details will be published as they become available:
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Despite a late Indian Summer, Autumn is well on its way and Winter will soon be knocking on the door. There is plenty to interest you in this Newsletter so I will keep this short. While working at the Pentagon over the last couple of weeks, I had the opportunity to visit two conferences: a US DoD Spectrum Conference in Crystal City and the AOC Annual International Symposium and Convention. The contrast between the two was marked. Much of the AOC event was inevitably given over to ceremony, with flag waving and awards for a very wide and disparate “community” of EW and a number of largely separate IO disciplines. The speaker programme was equally wide but, with only one non-industry foreign speaker, hardly international. The highlight for me was a well conducted panel discussion with all the US services represented (including the Coast Guard) on “EW and Info Ops - Siblings or Co-Joined Siblings”. There were some great briefings, some humour and several penetrating questions from the packed audience. My take on the topic was “none of the above!” and I think many others agreed. Certainly there is little that has happened over the past decade to justify any “joined at the hips” view. Why? Because EW supports many capabilities and IO is really only about influence and all capabilities support that. Other sessions mentioned EW and Cyber - hopefully NOT the next battlefield, as once again they are separate and in separate domains. So, I found for the most part an absence of clarity of purpose at the AOC event. The DoD Spectrum Conference on the other hand had a simple unifying theme: the importance of all things electromagnetic and the many speakers discussed this from wide but commonly agreed basics with useful outcomes for all. One thing I also experienced was the emergence of thinking about the possibility of recognising the operational EM environment or EM domain. UK policy and NATO concepts already support this, so this is a “Good Thing”, I think, and something in which the UK Chapter intends to be engaged at the forefront. Professionally, it is something I am working on and am committed towards. The annual meeting of Chapter Presidents took place at the AOC Convention. Col Chris Glaze USAF Retd, the incoming AOC President, ran it and it was mercifully brief at only 90 minutes. I first met him when we were our respective National delegates to the NATO EW Advisory Committee. He emphasised his commitment to developing international issues and I think he is the right man for the job. So maybe there will be two international speakers at the 46th AOC Convention in Atlanta in 2010! At the meeting I was given US dollar cheques for our membership rebate and “Distinguished Chapter” award and your Treasurer will be busy paying them into our UK account as soon as the postal issues permit. So, with winter in mind, please try to come to our Christmas Party at the RAF Club in December. I look forward to seeing and meeting you there. The e-mail link to the President on our UK Chapter web-site is problematic - my personal email is jonclif@aol.com if you feel moved to contact me! John Clifford OBE President, AOC UK Chapter
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