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Transforming
The Sword |
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Transforming
The Sword |
The fifth annual Air Armament
Summit to plot the roadmap for future weapons development started out with a
literal bang – the “mother of all bangs” as the Massive Ordnance Airburst
Bomb (MOAB) presaged the three-day event when it was detonated the summit’s
first day, just one week before bombs began falling in Iraq.
While national broadcast media made a fuss over the MOAB the summit
trained its sights on the business of creating a future generation of weapons.
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“The summit serves as a forum for US and international senior leaders in government, industry, and academia to generate an air armament roadmap focused on delivering weapons capable of effectively meeting the postulated global environment and military threats for the next 25 years,” according to Major General Robert “Chedbob” Chedister, commander of the Air Armament Center. He further noted that Eglin’s Air Armament Center is the “Center of Gravity” for weapons development. Indeed Eglin’s impact on weapons development is considerable – both in military firepower and in economic impact. Eglin along with Hurlburt Field and Duke Field generates $5 Billion annually for Okaloosa’s economy. Approximately 450 attendees gathered at the Sandestin Hilton to participate in panels focusing on planning, acquisition strategy, science and technology, infrastructure, funding resources, innovative industry practices, modeling and simulation, and the global environment. International participants included Algeria, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, and the United Kingdom. This year’s theme was “Transforming The Sword” – transforming the focus from program-centric methodology to one focused on capabilities. “The summit is focusing on capabilities versus programs,” says Chedister. Transformational thinking is the mantra and carries the echoes of the Secretary of the Air Force’s poignant remarks to his commanders over a year ago, “If we don’t change the way we do business then we are going to lose the war.” |
Photo: USAF |
But although many of the
products developed at the Air Armament Center such as the Joint Direct Attack
Munition are presently been employed in Operation Iraqi Freedom current events
have little or no impact on the summit’s long-term strategy according to a
press release by the Air Armament Center. However some weapons employment
concepts have been spawned at previous summits. The Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system armed with
Hellfire missiles was a concept championed at an earlier summit.
The summit’s charter of
building weapons for the future battlefield fits squarely into the Chief of
Staff of the Air Force’s “global strike” concept of “kicking down the
door.” General John Jumper noted
in his keynote address, “The whole notion of the global strike concept of
operations depends on stealth, standoff and precision.
It’s our forte and the people here do a lot to make that happen.”
General Jumper gave the audience several ideas to ponder for future weapons development. “Imagine the concept of a hovering UAV that could have a very precise sniper-like capability. In a scenario where you have a group of terrorists that you are trying to route out you would be able to hover around and with the precision of a sniper employ weapons in a very discreet way. We are thinking about that.”
Making weapons smaller and lighter is fundamental to this concept. “Our challenge is to take those weapons – we make them smaller, we make them lighter and you make them more lethal by taking advantage of the fact that you can be more precise,” Jumper noted.
In his dinner address Congressman Jeff Miller expressed his pride and support for the Air Force. “America must have the most effective, the most well-trained fighting force in the world because no points are given for second place, “ he noted. “We must have the most technologically advanced weapons in the world. And in a direct reference to the importance of Eglin’s role Miller stated, “The future of air armament is born here every single day.”
| Scott Jackson Mindlace Media Mindlace.com 850-217-7994 |
© 2002 Scott Jackson
