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UK WEST CHAPTER - 09/10/2024
In September, the chapter's guest speaker, Rear Adm. Nick Wheeler, director of the NATO Digital Staff, discussed his staff's role in the NATO Headquarters, with particular reference to digital transformation and the critical element that a Digital Backbone will play in the future vision for how the alliance will fight, also known as multidomain operations.The ultimate goal of the NATO Digital Backbone is one single and globally-accessible environment for information sharing, from the political realm through all three levels of command, and spanning across multiple participants, multiple operational domains and all the COIs within. The NATO Digital Backbone integrates various data sources and services, enabling large-scale data sharing and exploitation, thus transforming NATO into a data-centric alliance and enhancing military effectiveness and political decision-making. Adm. Wheeler provided the latest view on how the NATO Digital Backbone will be defined. What it is ... READ MORE |
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 06/13/2019
At the June chapter meeting, three key events were recognized. Firstly, Chris Yorke, AFCEA regional vice president for Western Europe, presented the chapter with its Model Chapter 2019 banner and the 30th Anniversary Certificate of Recognition, which is a great tribute to both the members and chapter management team. Finally, and most importantly, it was time to say thank you-but not goodbye-to John Kirby, who was handing over as the chapter president after 12 years of service. Kirby has been an absolute stalwart in leading the chapter for all these years and in that time, he has only missed two meetings, which is quite an achievement. As any chapter president knows, Kirby has had his challenges in managing and maintaining momentum for what is only a small chapter, but he managed to find fantastic speakers from the technology base all around the west of England. Kirby now passes the baton over to Ian Buchanan, who has a tough act to follow but will be supported by the great team tha ... READ MORE
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 05/14/2009
Discussing new deployed technical architecture (DTA) in the United Kingdom, Robert Linton, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), U.K. Ministry of Defense (MoD), served as the featured speaker at the chapter's April event. Linton explained how the DTA has been developed and implemented relatively quickly, thanks to support from senior military officials. The changes focus on creating a coherent and holistic architecture for deployed troops in Afghanistan. The program aims at becoming scalable, modular and flexible while remaining affordable, achievable and accreditable. The DE&S are working on a rolling five-year plan with staged transitions, which are vital for deployment to an operational area. The plan includes logical architecture, or what the MoD wants to achieve; physical architecture, or when and where the MoD wants it; and physical design, or how the MoD plans to deploy it. |
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 04/09/2009
Scott Wood, support officer for the blind, Charity Action for Blind People, served as the featured speaker during the chapter's April meeting. Wood, who has been blind for 35 years, provided an overview of how personal computers and the World Wide Web have given blind and visually impaired individuals access to information they otherwise would be unable to obtain. The visually impaired community now has greater employment and educational opportunities thanks to capabilities such as touch typing and synthetic speech output software. Wood also demonstrated how well-designed Web sites enable easy navigation for visually impaired users.
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 02/12/2009
In February, the chapter invited Michael E.J. Stubbings, head of Information Assurance Policy and Standards, Central Sponsor for Information Assurance, U.K. Cabinet Office, to be the featured speaker. He discussed information assurance within the U.K. government. Stubbings provided an overview of the key areas within information assurance that are being examined following the government's recent data losses. He discussed the role information assurance has in enabling the government to meet requirements in the areas of identity management and transformational government. Stubbings suggested ways in which the government needs to address the challenges appearing in technology, organizational culture and business models.
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 12/11/2008
Bob Quick, former integrated project team leader for the U.K. Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) program, discussed the history of the project from its inception to its current status and shared his thoughts on the way the project would develop and roll out in the coming years. Quick explained how things had changed during the life of the program-in particular, how operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have influenced it through urgent operational requirements and the benefits gained from its deployment. He provided insight into the complexities of monitoring the performance of the delivered elements of the system.
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 11/13/2008
In November, Ian Bryant of the Defence Security Standards Organisation (DSSO), U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD), discussed his work in the MOD related to information assurance. In particular, Bryant addressed the challenges of correctly labeling and assuring information. He has spent time on The National Archives (TNA) from the MOD DSSO, where he worked on the security of the data held by TNA. Bryant also has been working on a NATO panel examining the requirements for labeling data on behalf of the United Kingdom. From these experiences, he provided his views on the complexities of assuring information and the direction in which security would move in the future. In addition to many years working in security in the MOD, Bryant pointed out, he has spent time in the Cabinet Office, Central Sponsor for Information Assurance and at the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure.
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 06/12/2008 Dr. Matthew Angling, QinetiQ, was the guest speaker at the June meeting. He discussed recent developments in ionospheric imaging and explained how comprehensive, global and timely specifications of the earth's atmosphere are required to ensure effective operation, planning and management of many radio frequency systems. After Dr. Angling's presentation, Col. John Kirby, British Army (Ret.), chapter president, announced the chapter had won a Model Chapter of the Year Award for its hard work and dedication. |
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 04/17/2008
In April, Jon Dudley from QinetiQ's Maritime Division briefed the chapter on the U.K. Maritime Tactical Networks Command and Control (MTNC2) Capability Technology Demonstrator. This work has been developed under a U.K. Defence Ministry research program. Dudley served as the sea trials officer for the successful trials undertaken by QinetiQ in conjunction with the Royal Navy in 2004 and 2006. MTNC2 allows the Royal Navy to create a tactical wide area network at sea. He explained how the MTNC2 was able to automatically use whatever communications channels were available between the ships to communicate with each other, and how it was able to access the relevant satellite channels wherever they were within the fleet.
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 04/20/2007
The second AFCEA TECHWEST Conference and Exhibition in April attracted some 270 delegates and 46 Exhibitors and a star-studded cast of speakers who discussed the UK Defence Industrial Strategy. Cdre. Robert Howell, RN (Ret.), general manager of AFCEA Europe, delivered the AFCEA International message before handing over to Lt. Gen. Sir Tony Pigott, KCB CBE MA, Defence and Security Adviser to QinetiQ. Pigott spoke on future military operations and how the defence industrial strategy is vital to ensuring military capabilities for the warfighter. Rear Admiral Neil Latham, Commandant of the Defence College of Management and Technology, spoke about the importance of new technology to the warfighter and the trends in technology development today and in the future. John Taylor, director for general information at the UK Ministry of Defence, highlighted the challenges faced in the increasingly complex world of networks and network connectivity, emphasizing the importance of getting the se ... READ MORE
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UK WEST CHAPTER - 12/01/2006 Colin Nash, U.K. West chapter secretary, introduced Nigel Parker the guest speaker at the chapter's December meeting. Parker joined the Foreign and Commonwealth office in 1982 having previously served as a radio officer at sea. He has carried out technical security inspections in many U.K. missions overseas and spent a number of years working in Hungary, Jamaica, Switzerland and South Africa. Parker discussed counter-eavesdropping-exploring the methods of technical attack and how to reduce vulnerabilities. He talked about techniques used in carrying out a sweep for listening devices and explained what services and training opportunities are available from the U.K. national authority for counter-eavesdropping. |
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