Defense technology firms convene on Kaua'i
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
NAWILIWILI, Kaua'i — One of the exciting things about modern military technology is the ability of fighters in the field to adapt systems to do things they were never intended to do, said John J. Young Jr., assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.
Young, a former staff member of U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, was on Kaua'i last week to attend a conference of the firms that make some of the U.S. military's latest high-tech gear. He addressed the International Test and Evaluation Association symposium being held at the Kauai Marriott.
"We need to test new systems as efficiently as we can," John J. Young Jr. said.
Many of the systems on display at the conference are tested on Kaua'i at the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility.
Young said the range is crucial to mimicking battlefield scenarios for the testing of new systems.
"We continually see the power of this range. The Pacific Missile Range is probably one of the only places where you can do the testing and acquire the data as readily as they do," he said.
"We need to test new systems as efficiently as we can," but it is ultimately impossible to predict the specific demands of distant wars. "You can't simulate entirely the wartime environment."
Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan were able to reconfigure existing technologies in the field, creating a mobile command center that they could break down and reassemble in tents as battle groups moved quickly across the terrain, Young said.
"It's something that was never tested that way," he said.
Soldiers are finding that compatible systems are providing them with new capabilities.
"We now have the ability to connect sensors to radios and create an image of the battlefield" that appears on a commander's large-screen display," Young said.
Ships now can share one another's radar data, and one ship can use another ship's radar images to set the targets for its own weapons systems.
Advanced networking tools provide remarkable ease of operation, but the modern world also creates new threats.
Young said one of the challenges is to protect military data in the field from hackers, viruses and unreliable resources.
"The men and women in the field have to have confidence in their data," he said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
