2019 Agenda:

8:00 AM – 8:05 AM

Welcome Remarks

8:05 AM – 8:35 AM

Keynote

8:35 AM – 9:20 AM

Battlefield Networks (Keynote Panel)

The way defense agencies are securing and moving information around the battlefield is changing. For the Army, this means a change in tactical network modernization approach through adopting commercial IT capability to enhance network functionality and security. A key effort is what they describe as the integrated tactical network, which will provide commanders new ways, or new paths, to transport voice and data. In this panel, experts will discuss the network’s modernization effort, how evolving threats are dictating changes to information sharing and what technologies are necessary to accelerate the exchange of data.

9:20 AM – 9:50 AM

Networking Break

9:50 AM – 10:35 AM

Collaborative operations in a contested or denied environment

Just about every defense strategy relies heavily on GPS, SATCOM and other PNT technologies. But what happens when US and allied forces face an adversary that can block or deny the spectrum needed for these technologies? How will our EW strategies evolve to address the growing (and often asymmetric) capabilities of these rivals? How worried should DoD leaders be about a day without GPS, as some have posited? What happens when satellite communications are unavailable? This panel will discuss the appropriate level of redundancy, jamming technologies from Russia and China, and how to manage the cost curve to protecting these technologies.

COL Nicholas Kioutas
Project Manager for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PM PNT), U.S. Army

10:35 AM – 11:05 AM

Keynote

11:05 AM – 11:50 AM

Finding innovation while preserving overmatch

The DoD is clamoring for rapid innovation, fresh ideas, and delivery of new capabilities to the warfighter with speed. As such, it is reaching out in new ways to small businesses that it believes can fulfill these aspirations, thereby redefining the potential of the industrial base. With new entrants to the Defense market, the Pentagon believes it can find creative ways of thinking at lower prices. But the flip side to that argument, some in industry argue, is that the Pentagon can lose its overmatch capability if every nation can buy the same thing.  This panel will explore how this debate manifests itself in the IT, battlefield technology, including land electronics, and information warfare space.

11:50 AM – 1:00 PM

Networking Luncheon

1:00 PM – 1:45 PM

Capitalizing on the commercial space renaissance

In recent years, the commercial space industry has boomed, leading to new remote-sensing capabilities, new communication possibilities and dozens of new instruments on orbit. But are the Department of Defense and the intelligence community equipped to take advantage of these new data streams? And how are the Pentagon and intelligence leaders tweaking their plans for future space architectures to best incorporate commercial capabilities. How have new technological developments and new offerings made “on-demand” satellite service a possibility.

1:45 PM – 2:15 PM

Networking Break

2:15 – 3:00 PM

In search of the common operating environment

Leadership envisions an integrated battlefield of the future, where naval, ground and air forces can all seamlessly communicate. At the same time, these teams can coordinate with leaders overseeing space and cyber capabilities. How close are we to achieving this, and what obstacles, both culturally and technologically, need to be addressed?

3:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Data and Analytics and AI

The emergence of AI holds a tremendous amount of potential for information processing capabilities in the future. Decisions that may have once taken days or weeks could potentially be made in mere seconds. But how does leadership retain control of these game-changing processes and discern the correct insights and analyses from this machine-powered learning? What are the ethical, doctrinal and strategic implications of this new technology? And how can DoD minimize the attack surface this new technology presents?

Rob Monto
Lead, Emerging Technologies and Capabilities Office, Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, U.S. Army

3:30 PM – 4:15 PM

Keynote