The chapter held its 33rd AFCEA Command, Control, Computers, Communication, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Symposium in April at the San Diego Hall of Champions and the SSC Pacific Topside auditorium. This year's theme was “Assuring Information Dominance in a Denied C4ISR Environment.” The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR)-Systems Center Pacific co-hosted the event with more than 600 attendees—half of which came from the government sector. Jesse Hamilton, chapter vice president for publicity, said, “The high government attendance and the in-depth technical conversation between industry and government sets this symposium apart from all others.”
The event raised more than $75,000 for the chapter's Education Foundation with 100 percent of the symposium's proceeds donated to a program that encourages and benefits students and teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. At the symposium, SSC Pacific joined with industry, military and other government organizations to provide a venue where participants engaged with other professionals as well as with senior decision makers within the C4ISR community. At the symposium, Capt. Joseph Beel, USN, SSC Pacific commanding officer, gave the keynote address and defined information dominance. Capt. Beel focused on what SPAWAR and the Navy are doing to provide information dominance to the fleet. “Information dominance starts with research,” said Beel. “It is part of SPAWAR's mission. We must constantly be innovating and working with industry, academia, government and military to figure out new and innovative ways of doing things, creating superior technologies and capabilities, ultimately providing the warfighter with an unfair advantage—an unfair fight.”
Following Capt. Beel, Mike Kutch, head of information assurance, SSC Atlantic (Code 5.8), spoke during a breakout session about SSC Atlantic's future goals, emphasizing the value of partnerships within the SPAWAR organization. In addition, panel discussions included “All things Cyber,” moderated by Brian Whyte; “Autonomous Vehicles in a Denied Environment,” moderated by Steve Koepenick; “Information Dominance: What's Next?” moderated by Rob Wolborsky; and “C4ISR in a Denied Environment,” moderated by Rear Adm. Jerry Burroughs USN. |
