A collection of news and information specifically for the C4ISR community

Vol. 4, No. 4
January 31, 2008

Members of Hanscom’s Voluntary Protection Program team traveled to Boston Jan. 24 for a Meet and Greet session hosted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Pictured here from right to left, VPP team members Galen Williams, 554th Electronic Systems Wing, TSgt. Corina Carrillo and SrA James Annison, 66th Comptrollers Squadron, Ed Luna, 66th Services Squadron and John Federici, 66th Mission Support Group, listen to one of the session's briefings. (U.S. Air Force photo by Jan Abate)

By Rhonda Siciliano
66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

ESC officer earns Bronze Star during deployment

ESC Commander Lt. Gen. Ted Bowlds presents Lt. Col. Bradley Riddle with the Bronze Star during a ceremony Jan. 9 at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Linda Daegele)

By Kevin Gilmartin
66 ABW Public Affairs

An officer assigned to the 554th Electronic Systems Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has been awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts while deployed to Iraq.

Lt. Col. Bradley T. Riddle, director of Contracting for the 554th, earned the medal for “exceptionally meritorious service” whiled serving with the Multi-National Security Transition Support Command from January to July 2007. ESC Commander Lt. Gen. Ted Bowlds presented the medal to Colonel Riddle in a ceremony at Wright-Patterson Jan. 9.

The Bronze Star is awarded to servicemembers in all branches of the military for combat heroism or meritorious service. Colonel Riddle’s award citation was signed by Gen. David H. Petraeus, commanding general of Multi-National Force-Iraq, and Army Secretary Peter Geren.

During his deployment, Colonel Riddle led a 35-person, joint-service acquisition team of military members, civilians and support contractors as well as local nationals that awarded more than $1.4 billion to rebuild Iraq’s security and defense infrastructure. According to his award citation, the colonel and his team “equipped and readied 345,000 Iraqi Defense Forces and orchestrated the build up of 16 operating bases with instructors, ranges and life support facilities,” enabling the Iraqi Defense Force to execute counter-insurgent combat operations.

“The exciting thing for me and the other members of the team was the whole goal we were working towards, which was to help the Iraqis become self-sufficient,” he said. “We built a lot of bases to train Iraqi police and soldiers so they could uphold the rule of law. We also awarded 60 percent of our contracts to home-grown Iraqi companies, which provided jobs for Iraqis and helped keep the money in the local economy.” (More)

AFIT offers critical acquisition course at Hanscom AFB

The Air Force Institute of Technology’s Intermediate Program Management Skills Course (IPM 301) will be taught twice this year at Hanscom. It will be offered on May 5 through 15 and again June 16 through 26 at the Hanscom Education and Training Center, Bldg 1728.

This nine-day course will include a review of project management principles, as well as business case development and analysis, project planning, communications and time management, and project execution, review, recovery and closeout.

These numerous topics will be taught through a variety of dynamic formats, including lecture, hands-on tools, and group exercises and discussions. The course is mandatory for first lieutenants, captains and majors in Air Force Skill Code 63Ax (acquisition managers) and civilians in the grades of GS-11 through GS-13 in occupational series 1101 (acquisition program managers) possessing a minimum of 30 months of acquisition project management experience.

Individuals must have completed Acquisition 201, Intermediate Systems Acquisition, prior to registering for this class. Contact Randy Hatem, base training monitor, at 377-7376, or James Muise, 377-4536, to register or obtain additional information about the course.

ESC system provides broader global logistics view

By Jason Bishop
754 Electronic Systems Group

MAXWELL AFB - GUNTER ANNEX, Ala. -- The 754th Electronic Systems Group Integrated Logistics Systems Supply team here reached a significant milestone in converting 100 bases from an older a legacy system to the modern Enterprise Solution-Supply earlier this month.

The legacy system, known as MASS, is used for locating and redistributing spare parts needed to repair mission impaired weapon systems. It was developed under a former concept of operations that considered base-assigned weapon systems rather than the entire fleet of a given type of aircraft. This led to competition between bases for limited spare parts, which may have sub-optimized fleet support.

The new process provides a broader view of global logistics support and expeditionary operations, said Scott Hunter, a functional analyst with the team.

The 100-base mark is about one third of the roughly 300 total bases targeted for the migration.

“Identifying where these parts were located and taking distribution actions was quite a cumbersome process,” said Phil Waugh, ILSS Project Manager. The new process takes all the bases using the older MASS system and migrates them into a Web-based system, which is accessible through the Air Force Portal.  (More)

US Air Force funds radar research for Global Hawk
-- Flight International
Successful testing of a sense-and-avoid anti-collision radar designed originally for general aviation could lead to a US Air Force Research Laboratory contract for its further development and possible future use on the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk.

USAF SEEKS INDUSTRY HELP IN NEW INFO FUSION, SURVEILLANCE PROJECT
-- Inside the Air Force
Air Force Research Laboratory officials are looking for industry help in a $50 million information fusion research
and development project, according to a draft request for proposals released by the lab on Jan..

Network Attack Gets Tougher
-- Aviation Week & Space Technology
China’s integrated air defenses—based on cheap, sometimes stolen digital technology—are now considered potentially more threatening to the U.S. than Russia’s.

Services still uncrossing wires to marry net-centric forces
-- Aerospace Daily
While the Pentagon continues to develop more interoperable network-centric systems linking the different branches, the services still get their wires crossed, officers from the U.S. Marine Corps and Army said Jan. 24.

Air Force Trains Warriors To Defend Cyberspace From Terror
-- USA Today
The military relies on computers and electronic communication to launch precision weapons, spy on its enemies and communicate with troops in combat.

Helping Info Flow Freely
-- Defense News
The U.S. military may have invented network-centric warfare, but in some practical ways, the insurgents in Iraq have mastered it, says a former U.S. commander of U.S. and allied troops in Iraq.

Preventive Care Prescribed for Pentagon Big-Ticket Programs
-- National Defense Magazine
At triage stations on the battlefield, medics take care of patients on the basis of need.

Government set to step up air defense
-- The Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan)
The Defense Ministry has decided to improve the nation's defenses against cruise missiles, which can bomb important military facilities and other targets with pinpoint accuracy, ...

command comments ...

…. We can expect these so-called asymmetric operations, messy, protracted struggles without clear battle lines or exit strategies to be a mainstay of the 21^st century battlefield.

     So the military must retain the lessons and institutionalize the capabilities it has learned and relearned in these key areas. The military and our government as a whole is grappling with the reality that the fundamental nature of conflict as we’ve long perceived it has changed. As we have seen from the recent campaigns, the once stark black-and-white divisions between war and peace have faded. And so, America’s national security apparatus, military and civilian, needs to be more adept in operating along a continuum involving military, political, and economic skills in a gray area that is likely to be persistent, containing opportunities as well as dangers. These scenarios will call for more shaping and influencing and less compulsion of friends, adversaries, and, most importantly, those in between. 
 

-- Secretary of Defense
Robert M. Gates at Jan. 26
speech at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies

The Integrator is a weekly product of the Electronic Systems Center Public Affairs Office designed to give ESC decision makers a snapshot of news affecting the C4ISR community.  This e-publication is approved by Kevin Gilmartin, Director of Public Affairs, (DSN) 478-4110 or commercial (781) 377-4110.  Back issues are available online.  To facilitate service, please select a link for your e-mails:  
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