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Engineering Total Force for Battlespace Dominance: Theme for 2007 ASNE Southern Indiana Symposium

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS071211-04
Release Date: 12/11/2007 2:01:00 PM

From Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division Public Affairs

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (NNS) -- The Southern Indiana Section of the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) in liaison with Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) held its annual symposium at the Bloomington Convention Center, Nov. 13-15.

In keeping with the symposium theme, topics included: Maintaining Military Electronics Infrastructure, Rapid Technology Transition, Industry/Academic Partnerships, Next Generation Systems, Battlespace Awareness/Sensors, Net-Centric Warfare/Joint Operations, Electronic Warfare/Counter IED, Maritime/Expeditionary Operations, Weapons and Energetics and Homeland Defense. More than 40 exhibitors representing businesses, contractors and other professionals displayed a diversity of information within the engineering field.

Opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Darren Crum, ASNE Symposium co-chair; U.S. Coast Guard, Rear Adm. Dale Gabel, ASNE President; and Jamie Blackwell, Deputy Technical Director, NSWC Crane.

"The technical information exchange we see at the symposium is a testament to ASNE's purpose of advancing the knowledge of naval engineering," said Crum. "The ASNE symposium is a great opportunity to bring together government, industry, and academia to exchange ideas and experiences."

Howard Fireman, director, Future Concepts and Surface Ship Design Group, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), moderated a plenary panel discussion on roles and priorities in engineering the total Department of Defense military force and how technology is enabling the challenges to be met in successfully dominating the battle-space.

Panel members included: John H. James Jr., NAVSEA Executive Director, Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations; retired Air Force Gen. Hansford T. Johnson, retired Rear Adm. Grady L. Jackson; and Duane Embree, Division Technical Director, NSWC Crane.

Rear Adm. Michael Frick, vice commander, NAVSEA, spoke at a luncheon on the NAVSEA enterprise approach. He emphasized that this approach is about changing the way we do business, functioning not as a new chain of command, but rather as a business-centric organization to deliver maritime dominance on a global scale.

"The enterprise framework consists of activities, governance and behaviors that will increase the efficiency in how we deliver both current readiness and future capability. Through it we will lay the groundwork for improved and efficient decisions regarding our mission, our capability and our resources," said Frick.

He concluded that instead of massing our forces, we connect our diverse array of warfighting capability through networks and sensors and put "capability in the hands of our joint force, a tremendous capability unimaginable to our naval forces even five years ago. That is where teams from NAVSEA and ASNE make a difference, as we work together to solve naval warfighting challenges."

The purpose of ASNE is to advance the knowledge and practice of naval engineering in public and private applications and operations, to enhance the professionalism and well-being of members and to promote naval engineering as a career field.