BOSTON, 15 March 2005. Air Force planners need technology proposals from private industry... as long as those companies define their new products in terms of the effects they will have on the battlefield.
That was the message from Brig. General (S) Gary Connor, commander of the U.S. Air Force Electronic Systems Center's C2ISR Systems Wing, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. He spoke today at the Military Technologies Conference, held March 15-16 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Boston.
Tickets are still available for the conference. For more information, see www.miltechconference.com.
Companies should pitch their products in terms of the military missions of Hanscom airmen, Connor said. Three main goals include: persistent sensor presence over the battlefield; "cursor over the target" capability to feed targeting data to a commander's console; and "one time of flight" lethality to ensure one-pass-one-kill ability for every strike.
Military electronics manufacturers also got a lesson in international trade.
Following strict rules in the International Traffic and Arms Regulations (ITAR), U.S. State Department workers amend or deny 41 percent of the 60,000 technology-export applications they receive every year.
There are some easy steps to make sure that your company's request is one of the 59 percent that get approved, said Gregory Suchan, deputy assistant secretary for defense trade controls at the State Department.
Read the department's list of banned countries, posted on its site at www.pmdtc.org. And if you are going to submit technical data, use the department's electronic licensing system, D-Trade, to get a reply in half the time as paper applications.
For more information, attend the Military Technologies Conference this week, or read future issues of Military & Aerospace Electronics.
By Ben Ames, Senior Editor
