2019 Agenda:

8:00 AM – 8:04 AM

Welcome Remarks

8:04 AM – 8:05 AM

Keynote Introductions and Remarks

Tom Catudal
Director, Business Development, Leonardo DRS

8:05 AM – 8:35 AM

Keynote

Dr. William Conley
Deputy Director, Electronic Warfare, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment

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.

Joseph Welch
Acting Deputy Program Executive Officer Program Executive Office, Command, Control and Communications-Tactical, U.S. Army

Col. Rob Ryan
Deputy Director, Network Cross-Functional Team, U.S. Army

Charlie Kawasaki
CISSP, Chief Technical Officer, PacStar

Bill Patterson
Vice President and General Manager of the Ground Systems line of business, General Dynamics Mission Systems

Moderator: Mark Pomerleau, Reporter, C4ISRNET and Fifth Domain

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.

Shawn Barnes
Deputy Principal Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for Space, U.S. Air Force

Dr. Michael Zatman
Assistant Director for Fully Networked Command, Control and Communications, Department of Defense

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

Aaron Mebust
Director of Strategy/Capture, Product Manager, GPS Source

Moderator: Mark Pomerleau, Reporter, C4ISRNET and Fifth Domain

10:35 AM – 11:05 AM

Keynote

Rear Admiral Steve Parode
Director, Warfare Integration Directorate, N2/N6F, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Navy

11:05 AM – 11:45 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.

Patrick O’Neill
Director, C5ISR Center, Combat Capabilities Development Command, U.S. Army

Dr. Cindy Daniell
Director, Research, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Andrew Hunter
Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group and Senior Fellow, International Security Program, CSIS

Moderator: Jill Aitoro Executive Editor, Defense News, Federal Times, C4ISRNET, FifthDomain

11:45 AM – 12:34 PM

Networking Luncheon

12:34 AM – 12:35 PM

Keynote Introduction and Remarks

Bill Patterson
Vice President and General Manager, Ground Systems, General Dynamics Mission Systems

12:35 AM – 1:05 PM

Keynote

LTG James Pasquarette
Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, U. S. Army

1:05 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.

James Comfort
Principal Deputy Director, Geospatial Intelligence Systems Acquisition Directorate, National Reconnaissance Office

Col. Steve Butow
Space Portfolio Director, Defense Innovation Unit

Victoria Samson
Washington Office Director, Secure World Foundation

Pete Hoene
President & CEO, USAF (Ret.), SES

Moderator: Mike Gruss,Editor, C4ISRNET

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?

Brig. Gen. Mark Baird
Deputy Director, National Reconnaissance Office

Col. Troy Crosby
Project Manager, Mission Command, Program Executive Officer for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical U.S. Army

Joseph P. Dupont
Program Director, ManTech

Moderator: Jen Judson, Reporter, Defense News

3:00 PM – 3:45 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?

Col. Stoney Trent
Chief of Operations,Joint Artificial Intelligence Center

Jennifer Schnarre
Associate Director for Capabilities, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Rob Monto
Lead, Advanced Concepts and Experimentation (ACE) Office, U.S. Army

Chad Hutchinson
Director of Engineering, Crystal Group

Moderator: Kelsey Atherton, Writer, C4ISRNET and Fifth Domain