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A collection of
news and information specifically for the C4ISR community |
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Hanscom once
again among best places to work in Massachusetts
66th Air Base Group Public Affairs For the third year in a row the Boston Globe has named Hanscom Air Force Base as one of the best places to work in Massachusetts, recognizing the competitive pay and benefits of employment and the strong quality of life at the base. The Globe, Boston's major metropolitan daily newspaper, announced Hanscom's selection as one of the top 25 large organizations Nov. 5 in an article on Boston.com, and featured the base in a special pull-out magazine in Sunday's edition entitled "The Boston Globe Top Places to Work." Displayed prominently on the back page of the magazine is a full page civilian recruiting ad highlighting Hanscom and the Electronic Systems Center. A large organization was defined as one with more than 1,000 employees. (More) |
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Major AWACS
upgrade set to begin
66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
The next step in the largest block upgrade in the history of the Airborne Warning and Control System is set to occur today at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., when the first aircraft receiving the block 40/45 modification is inducted by the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center.
“This modification replaces a mission computer system originally installed in the 1970s,” said Maj. Brett Johnson, AWACS 40/45 Production chief. “The new system will have an open, network-based architecture, enabling future net-centric modifications.”
New mission software will enhance tracking and combat identification capabilities, in addition to providing operators with a better picture of the battlespace. (More) |
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Clean,
low-energy solutions sought for mammoth program
66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
Ongoing technical and cost analyses could lead program officials to seek a mixture of alternative energy sources to fuel the next generation of massive ground-based radars that will track space objects and debris.
Last month, the Electronic Systems Center released a Request for Proposal announcement for the Space Fence program. Valued at more than $3.5 billion, the program is expected to deliver a system of geographically dispersed ground-based sensors to provide timely assessment of space events.
In this upcoming phase, ESC will award up to two preliminary design review contracts worth up to a total of $214 million. Regardless of the ultimate design, however, officials already know the huge S-band radars that will track mass of objects in space will require a lot of energy. (More) |
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ESC’s 2010 SWO award winners announced
Battle Management Directorate
The Electronic Systems Center honored its best for acquisition excellence at the 2010 Shiely, Wright and O’Neill Awards Banquet held on Nov. 10 in front of a full crowd at the Minuteman Club.
Retired Lt. Gen. Henry A. “Trey” Obering III was the guest speaker for the banquet and joined Electronic Systems Center Commander, Lt. Gen. Ted Bowlds, in presenting the awards.
The first award presented was the Harold M. Wright Award, which is given annually to two civilian employees within ESC, recognizing them for their outstanding contributions to the center’s mission. The award is given in honor of Harold M. Wright, the Electronic Systems Division commander’s chief technical adviser from 1969 until his retirement in 1973. (More)
Maj. Gen. Albert R. Shiely Jr. Award:
Major Program Category: Air and Space Operations Center
Minor Program Category: Battlefield Airborne Communications Node JUON |
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ESC’s new
Engineering director returns to acquisition roots
66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
Susan Thornton, new Engineering director for the Electronic Systems Center, said she is excited about returning to the acquisition world, describing her job as a sort of homecoming.
Although her most recent position was as director of the Directed Energy Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland AFB, N.M, most of her previous experiences have been working in engineering for acquisition programs of all scopes and sizes.
She worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, for 20 years before moving to Kirtland to be the Engineering director for the Airborne Laser Program. In that role, her job was to organize, train and equip the program with engineers.
“Obviously, the scope of this new position is much larger in terms of number of people, dollar amounts and variety and type of programs,” Ms. Thornton said. “But my roots are in acquisition and I’ve been an acquisition engineer for most of my career.” (More) |
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C2
Constellation still integrating, piece by piece
A program initiated ten years ago as a grand attempt to integrate all command and control (C2) systems continues to contribute to that goal today, though in a different way.
While the C2 Constellation began as an effort to build an overarching architecture for all C2 systems, work now focuses on specific enterprise integration efforts to connect key systems within programs of record, said Arthur Daltas, C2C program manager.
“We still use that architecture work as a resource, but our efforts are now aimed at more practical systems engineering work,” Mr. Daltas said. “We look for good opportunities to close the gaps among specific programs of record.”
Those opportunities are sought formally through an annual summer call for candidates and also informally, via various discussions that take place throughout the year.
“The key to the evolved approach,” said Perry Villanueva, chief of the Capabilities Integration Directorate’s C2 Innovation Branch, “is that all of this is done in partnership.” (More) |
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ESC engineers
bring innovation to AFRL Commander's Challenge
66th Air Base Group Public Affairs Four Electronic Systems Center engineers were among 15 junior Air Force Materiel Command personnel chosen to participate in the 2010 Air Force Research Laboratory Commander's Challenge, a two-team competition where each team designs, develops and demonstrates a solution to an urgent warfighter need. The challenge for this year's competition, which lasted six months, involved developing a perimeter surveillance and detection system for a forward operating base and combat outposts, primarily in the Afghanistan theatre of operations. Both teams had a limited time and budget to produce a system that could be transitioned to the warfighter with very little follow-on effort. "This is a win-win situation," said Maj. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of Air Force Research Laboratory. "Junior people from throughout Air Force Materiel Command get the opportunity to work on a team to take on a real world problem. The Air Force Research Laboratory gets the opportunity to watch 'out of the box' thinking." David Rozenberg of ESC's Capabilities Integration Division and 1st Lt. Colleen Carey of ESC's Battle Management Directorate were members of the winning team, which operated out of Eglin AFB, Fla. Second Lt. Stephen Maksim and 2nd Lt. Ryan Dicosomo of the Battle Management Directorate were part of the second team, which operated out of Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. (More) |
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Next Heroes
Homecoming set for Dec. 10
The next Heroes Homecoming will take place
on Dec. 10 beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Aero Club Hangar. The
Hanscom community is invited to honor personnel who have
returned home from deployments in the past six months. |
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Brig. Gen. Craig Olson, Air Force program executive officer for Enterprise Information Systems, talks with members of the Hanscom Representatives Association during their monthly luncheon meeting at Hanscom’s Minuteman Club Nov. 16. General Olson talked about the necessity of enterprise information systems, the challenge of managing them and his desire for genuine partnership with industry. (U.S. Air Force photo by Mark Wyatt.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Congratulations to ESC's Chief Master Sergeant selects The following senior master sergeants from Electronic Systems Center were selected for promotion to chief master sergeant:
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ESC announces fourth quarter FY10 program
management
award winners
Not pictured: Outstanding ESC CGO PM: Capt. Daniel M. Walsh Outstanding ESC Civilian (Cat I) PM: Benjamin Zauner
ESC announces annual FY10 program
management
award winners
Not pictured: Outstanding ESC FGO PM: Maj. Gabriel S. Hiley Outstanding ESC Civilian (Cat I) PM: Andrew J. Eramo |
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the news ... The following items have recently run in commercial news media outlets. They have not been produced by the U.S. Air Force, nor does their use reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Battle ready -- C4ISR Journal This time, operators were sufficiently trained. This time, U.S. Air Force ISR analysts weren’t interrupted in their work of deciphering airborne video, imagery and other intelligence for troops at war. Test shows viability of new camera for Joint STARS -- The Warner Robins Patriot The Joint STARS’ unblinking eye will receive significant, real-time improvement in target identity and recognition if a recently completed test leads to modification of the premier ground surveillance aircraft. Sprightly Sensis takes on mighty Lockheed Martin for billion-dollar radar deal -- The Post Standard The big kid and the little guy. Sometimes they play nice together. This time they’re wracking their brains to beat the other for a billion-dollar jackpot from the Department of Defense. U.S. sees "huge" cyber threat in the future -- Reuters The United States faces a major threat in the future from cyber technologies that will require civil-military coordination to shield networks from attack, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday. ISR technology key to victory in Afghanistan, Cartwright says -- Defense Systems Nearly a decade of war is taking a major toll on the U.S. military and economy, and combined with complex technological needs, it’s proving to be a tough road for troops in the ongoing Southwest Asia conflict, according to one senior Defense Department official. Lambert: U.S. Must Preserve Ability to Innovate -- Defense News The Pentagon must strike a balance between encouraging innovative companies to seek Defense Department work and preventing those firms from entering a "summit of death" that strips them of their primary value, says Brett Lambert, DoD industrial affairs chief. Technology Opens Military Space -- Aviation Week As space becomes more important to military operations, the flimsiness of the laws and conventions that govern space operations is more apparent. Senior acquisition officials question procurement policy direction -- Government Executive Senior federal acquisition officials do not believe that many of the signature procurement policy changes the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have implemented in recent years are adding significant value to the government's mission, according to a new report from a pair of industry groups. |
command comments ...
"… We're seeing continued investment in the sensors that we have in place around the world, our ground-based radars and our electro-optical systems. We cannot forget as we look to new technologies in the future that we need to sustain these fundamental capabilities that we have today, if for no other reason, in the radar business they are dual purpose and support our missile defense and missile warning mission sets, but they're absolutely critical for the space surveillance and situational awareness missions as well. …
The space fence continues to get support in the budget and it's important that we continue to keep the pressure on here. The space fence that exists today running across the United States of America is old and tired and unsupportable in the long term. And the technologies that are being advanced for the follow-on space fence will give us enhanced capability, better resolution, a higher, longer reach to examine a critical area of orbit, low earth orbit, which we all know is being more and more challenged by debris and certainly would be a challenged domain in part of the environment in any potential future conflict."
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The Integrator
is a
weekly product of the 66th Air Base Wing 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, Chief 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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