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Australia, Japan and the United States conducted a trilateral passage in the Philippine Sea en route to participate in Exercise Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) in Hawaii.
The Australian Defence Force Joint Task Group was joined in the Philippine Sea this week by the USS Ronald ReaganCarrier Strike Group, which includes the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam and guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin, and Japan’s Akizuki-class destroyer JS Teruzuki.
The deployment demonstrates Australia’s enduring commitment to enhancing security, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, and increasing the capability and interoperability of the ADF.
The three days of activities included replenishments at sea, aviation operations, maritime manoeuvres and communications drills.
Commander of the Australian Joint Task Group, Commodore Michael Harris, said the opportunity to work alongside Japan and the United States was invaluable.
“The combined activities between our navies demonstrates a high degree of interoperability and capability between Australia, Japan and the United States,” Commodore Harris said.
Officers and sailors on the upper decks of Canberra admired the maritime and aerial display as the ships separated.
“We’re very lucky to be out here, working as a united task group,” said Petty Officer physical training instructor Shane Murphy.
“I’m proud to be part of it.”
Captain Caldwell, Commanding Officer USS Antietam, said the passage demonstrated shared commitment to regional stability.
“The relationships we’ve developed enable us to meet at sea and immediately operate at an advanced level. This highlights the enduring nature of our alliances with Japan and Australia,” Captain Caldwell said.
Captain Sakano Yusuke, Commander of Japan’s Escort Division 4, said strengthening cooperation with the US Navy and Royal Australian Navy was vitally important for Japan and contributed to a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
“The experience in this exercise will give us tactical and operational advantages and make our friendships stronger, in addition to our regular joint exercises with both like-minded navies,” Captain Sakano said.
HMA Ships Canberra, Hobart, Stuart, Arunta and Sirius left Darwin on July 5 to begin a regional deployment to South-East Asia and Hawaii.
This article was first published by the Department of Defence on July 24, 2020.
The featured photo: Ships from the RAN, US Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force sail in company through the Philippine Sea as aircraft from US Carrier Airwing 5 fly above. Photo: Leading Seaman Ernesto Sanchez
Last month, the Marine Corps wrapped up its first sea trials with the new CH-53K King Stallion.
In an article by Megan Eckstein published by USNI News on June 25, 2020, the crossing of one of the “last big items on the to do list before the heavy lift helicopter program can turn the aircraft over to the fleet for operational tests and a 2023 first deployment” was highlighted.
She interviewed Col. Jack Perrin, the H-53 heavy lift helicopters program manager for Naval Air Systems Command.
Col. Jack Perrin, the H-53 heavy lift helicopters program manager for Naval Air Systems Command, told USNI News in a June 24 interview that the sea trials were meant to test all the ways the helicopter interfaces with a ship: communications while in flight, the ability to land on all nine spots on the flight deck in all weather and lighting conditions, the ability to be towed around the flight deck and hangar bay, the ability to be folded up and tied down, the ability to be maintained at sea and more.
The helicopter conducted two flight periods a day, one in daylight and one at night – taking off, with the pilots recording notes on the difficulty and safety of that particular evolution; flying a mile or so from the ship; flying back in the traditional landing pattern to attempt a landing; recording notes on that landing; and then the ship turning into a new wind condition for the process to start over again.
Though sea trials with some other programs have exposed problems that needed to be addressed through technical or procedural changes, “we were very fortunate; we did not find that big thing that was going to cause us risk or delay or a big technical issue. With this, we have now gone through this program and hit pretty much everything that they aircraft needs to do in order to deploy. We still have some more data to take, we have some tests to finish up, but we’ve been to every big thing,” Perrin said.
“We’ve done the external loads, done the internal loads, we went out and did helicopter aerial refueling, and now we’ve gone to the ship and been out there and seen that. Our risk on this program, for the 53K not being able to go out and support that first deployment and get through [operational testing], is greatly reduced now because of the success we’ve had and the performance the aircraft has shown during this test and the test previous. So we’re pretty happy as a program.”
Perrin added:
“(With) operational test Marines out on the ship, with pilots in the cockpit, crew chiefs in the back of the helo and maintainers on the ship – all getting a sneak peak at how this helicopter compares to its predecessor.
“They now understand what it can do and what tactics, techniques and procedures, or TTPs, that they’re going to need to adjust from what we do with the 53E to how the 53K operates. So they are getting a complete heads start on having those tactics, techniques and procedures developed, so that when they go to the official IOT&E or initial operational test and evaluation, they’ve already been on the aircraft, they’ve already been flying the aircraft, they’ve already seen this,” he said.
“When they go out to the ship as part of the test – and they will go out to a ship as part of the IOT&E – they’re going to be running instead of learning at that time. They’re going to be executing. And that’s the key of an ITT or integrated test team, is that everybody gets to learn together.”
For another look at the CH-53K sea trials, see the following video as well:
We interviewed Col. Perrin earlier this year, and in that interview he highlighted the importance of the CH-53K for the Marine Corps.
In a visit to Pax River in January 2020, there was a chance to discuss the progress of the program with Colonel Jack Perrin Program Manager, PMA-261 H53 Heavy Lift Helicopters, US Naval Air Systems Command at Pax River Naval Air Station….
As Col. Perrin noted in our conversation: “The USMC has done many studies of distributed operations and throughout the analyses it is clear that heavy lift is an essential piece of the ability to do such operations.”
And not just any heavy lift – but heavy lift built around a digital architecture.
Clearly, the CH-53E being more than 30 years old is not built in such a manner; but the CH-53K is.
What this means is that the CH-53K “can operate and fight on the digital battlefield.”
And because the flight crew are enabled by the digital systems onboard, they can focus on the mission rather than focusing primarily on the mechanics of flying the aircraft. This will be crucial as the Marines shift to using unmanned systems more broadly than they do now.
For example, it is clearly a conceivable future that CH-53Ks would be flying a heavy lift operation with unmanned “mules” accompanying them. Such manned-unmanned teaming requires a lot of digital capability and bandwidth, a capability built into the CH-53K.
If one envisages the operational environment in distributed terms, this means that various types of sea bases, ranging from large deck carriers to various types of Maritime Sealift Command ships, along with expeditionary bases, or FARPs or FOBS, will need to be connected into a combined combat force.
To establish expeditionary bases, it is crucial to be able to set them up, operate and to leave such a base rapidly or in an expeditionary manner (sorry for the pun).
This will be virtually impossible to do without heavy lift, and vertical heavy lift, specifically.
Put in other terms, the new strategic environment requires new operating concepts; and in those operating concepts, the CH-53K provides significant requisite capabilities.
And this Marine Corps-Navy capability is suggestive of a broader set of considerations for the Army and the Air Force.
If Expeditionary Basing is crucial, certainly the CH-53K could provide capabilities for the Army and the Air Force, to compliment fixed wing lift aircraft.
And in many cases, only a vertical lift support capability will be able to do the job.
Remember the USAF flies the CV-22s and if they are part of the distributed fight and requiring expeditionary basing, it may be the case that such a base can be set up and sustained only by vertical heavy lift.
Both considerations, how to cross-operate across the seabase and the expeditionary base, and the question of whether vertical heavy lift is now becoming a strategic asset, will be dealt with in later pieces.
But for now, the core point is simple – the K needs to come into the USMC-Navy team as soon as possible to enable the shift in concepts of operations required to deal with the new strategic environment.
And if the CH-53K became part of the joint team, the question of cost is very manageable.
By producing more aircraft, the cost curve comes down. And shaping a more effective cost curve is a significant challenge which the program is addressing.
For our archive of CH-53K stories, see the following:
According to a Japanese Ministry of Defence article published in July 2020, a recent exercise by the USAF and the JASDF was highlighted.
Misawa Air Base is the Koku-Jieitai (Japan Air Self-Defense Force)`s only air base operated jointly with the United States. The joint use started in 1958. Currently, there are 15 Koku-Jieitai (JASDF) air units stationed at the base, which is the home of Koku-Jieitai (JASDF) F-35A fighters and U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-16 fighters.
Taking advantage of the fact that it is a base for joint use with the U.S. Forces, the Koku-Jieitai (JASDF) makes constant efforts to improve interoperability, maintain and improve Japan-U.S. joint response capabilities, and promote mutual understanding and communication with the U.S. forces through various exercises and activities.
On June 22nd, 12 F-35A fighters of the 302nd Squadron, 3rd Air Wing, Northern Air Defense Force, Koku-Jieitai (JASDF) participated in an “Elephant Walk” conducted by the USAF’s 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base.
The “Elephant Walk” is a multiple military aircraft taxiing in close formation intended to check and demonstrate the capability for large scale aircraft employment.
Through this “Elephant Walk”, the two countries confirmed the strength of the Japan-U.S. Alliance and the positive relationship between the Koku-Jieitai (JASDF) and the USAF at Misawa Base.
Lt. Gen. Christopher Cavoli, U.S. Army Europe Commanding General, Georgette Mosbacher, U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Mariusz Błaszczak, Minister of Defence for Poland and Polish Armed Forces General Commander, Jaroslaw Mika, observe a joint river crossing mission at Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland, June 17, 2020.
Exercise Allied Spirit, a DEFENDER-Europe 20 linked exercise, originally scheduled for May, takes place at Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland, June 15-19, 2020.
Approximately 6,000 U.S. and Polish Soldiers are taking part in the exercise.
The modified exercise will test a division-sized unit’s ability to conduct a deliberate water crossing, integrate with alliance capabilities, and establish a common intelligence operation picture.
The exercise, modified in response to COVID-19, operates in accordance with the guidance directed by DoD and host nations.
All U.S. Soldiers and civilians involved in the exercise completed a 14-day quarantine and were tested for COVID-19 upon arrival with additional health screenings if necessary.
During my recent visits to Jax Navy, Mayport, Fallon Naval Air Station and to North Island Naval Air Station, I had a chance to meet with a wide range of Navy officers focused on reshaping air-maritime capabilities to have a more effective and lethal combat force.
The re-shaping of the fleet into an integrated distributed force over the decade ahead, will see a new chapter written about the role of maritime remotes within the fleet as well.
The challenge will be to work through how the evolving sensor networks will inform C2, rather than overwhelm it. As solutions are worked, the way will be opened for new innovative ways to expand the contribution of sensors to enhancing the effectiveness, agility, lethality and survivability of the air-maritime combat force.
One way ahead with regard to the introduction of maritime remotes into the fleet could well be the introduction of autonomous mine detection and destruction systems introduced into the fleet.
The advantage of counter-mine autonomous package is rather straightforward: it can be deployed from a variety of ships in the fleet, rather than having to be managed by a specialized ship which will have to be present to execute the mission.
It is clear that the challenge of dealing with mines is a major one for any fleet, and that adversaries have focused on the use of mines as part of the package of capabilities which they are building and shaping to challenge the maritime forces of the United States and our allies.
As Greg Mapson has noted: “With China’s expansion into the South China Sea and its militarization of several reefs far from its shores, its minelaying forces have a more expansive role to play. The People’s Liberation Army Navy has a fleet of ships and conventional submarines with crews that are well practised, and indeed lauded, for their minelaying skills.
“They also possess very capable minelaying aircraft. The exercise demonstrated China’s commitment to mine warfare as a pillar of its naval strategy.
“Notwithstanding China’s potent capabilities in laying mines, many strategists wrongly believe they’ll be used in offensive operations, but they’re more versatile than that.
“One possible scenario is that China will use its growing mine stocks in a period of tension to further control access to areas surrounding its South China Sea claims by laying protective minefields—or even just claiming to.”
The threat is clear; the response less so.
There is significant interest and focus on shaping maritime remote capabilities in this area for sure.
And my discussions with Australian, British and US Naval officers has underscored the importance of leveraging new maritime remote capabilities as part of the solution set.
During my July visit to San Diego, I had a chance to view and be briefed on one approach to shaping a way ahead.
At the Trident Warrior 2020 exercise, I had a chance after landing from my visit to Fallon Naval Air Station, to visit the MARTAC team working their solution to the mine warfare challenge.
My colleague, George Galorisi, has introduced our readers and myself to the MARTAC solution as well as highlighting a number of ways in which maritime remotes can significantly enhance fleet capabilities and security.
In later articles, I will discuss with Galorisi his experience and thoughts on the way ahead in this area as well as more comprehensive look at my visit with the MARTAC at the end of their time at Trident Warrior.
Teledyne Technologies is the system integrator for the autonomous countermine systems carrier onboard MARTAC’s catamarans.
The team is using two key platforms carrier onboard the MANTAS which have significant operational experience in allied navies.
The first remote platform is SeaScout.
It is described the Teledyne Brown Engineering brochure as follows: “SeaScout is an advanced subsea imaging system designed for min hunting, change detection, and routine surveys of strategic ports and waterways. Founded on Kraken’s high-speed Synthetic Aperture Sonar Towfirsh and combined with ThayerMahan’s remote operations and communications system. SeaScout enables high resolution, real-time intelligence to mission planners over the horizon from both manned and unmanned platforms.”
The second remote platform is Pluto Plus.
It is described the Teledyne Brown Engineering brochure as follows: “Pluto Plus is a remote operated underwater vehicle (ROV) primarily used for heavy duty mine identification and mine disposal. PLUTO PLUS is capable of countermining missions in strong current and lack of visibility conditions, A smart combination of medium power high speed vehicle with the smallest communications capable and special purpose acoustic camera makes PLUATO PLUST the top mine hunting vehicle.”
My picture of the PLUTO PLUS at the Trident Warrior exercise can be seen below:
The two autonomous platforms operate from the MANTAS catamaran and the vessel can operate independently but is also connected to the host ship via data links which enables collaboration between the host ship and the autonomous counter mine vessel.
With regard to the MANTAS, the MARTAC web page describes it as follows:
“Maritime Tactical Systems, Inc. (MARTAC™) has patented a unique class of MANTAS™ next generation unmanned vessels. Our unmanned surface and hybrid vessels are accompanied with a robust Command and Control (C2) system known as TASKER™. Our MANTAS USV enables the coverage of open ocean and littoral waterways with extended on-station persistence capability. Our product line of unmanned vessels can range from 6′ (2m) to 50′ (15m) and capable of extreme high surface speeds.
“Our patented catamaran hull is suitable for surface, subsurface and unaided air drop operations.”
Together, the C2 links, the ROVs and the catamaran make up the mine hunting ecosystem.
A key focus of the program has been to build a system which can be operated from any ship with an 11 meter RHIB space onboard.
The system as well could easily fit into a transport helicopter to be brought to a fleet which would need the capability or have their capability enhanced as well.
Recently, I had a chance to talk about MARTAC and their approach to shaping a way ahead with their integrated systems for the U.S. and allied navies with the CEO of MARTAC, Bruce Hanson.
In a teleconference conducted on July 24, 2020, we discussed a number of issues.
A core theme in the discussion was how the MANTAS ecosystem could fit nicely into the evolved integrated distributed force.
Hanson underscored the variety of ways an autonomous maritime counter mine system can be deployed throughout the fleet, and the keen interest which allies have in the system as well.
My own experience, notably in Australia, has underscored that the counter-mine mission is of significant short to mid-term significance.
And with the OPV program on track, certainly Australia will be looking for such an autonomous counter mine capability as well,
It is clear as well that getting operational experience with remote systems is crucial to the way ahead.
It is not just about endless R and D; it is about getting operational experience with a novel system.
We have certainly seen that with Triton whereby the system is being deployed earlier than its IOC which led to the coining of the term EOC or early operational capability.
Perhaps this is a new way ahead for software defined and operated autonomous systems.
According to Hanson, the package which has been developed is available now and can enhance fleet capabilities in the near to mid-term.
With regard to the vessel, the history of the firm goes back to Hanson’s father he launched the catamaran innovations.
And according to Hanson, they recently found his father’s original work on autonomous maritime systems back to the 1960s, in which his father was using what would be considered a primitive IBM card system to operate the vessel. They found both his father’s original drawings and the original vessel to test the concepts.
During his own career, Hanson brought together design work from a colleague on high speed vessels with his own experience in aerospace.
The result was to build autonomous vessels and to then test those vessels and their ability to operate safely and effectively at sea.
Small vessels are exactly models of the bigger ones.
“We ran our six-foot boat on a wide variety of maritime environments and ran that T6 over 5000.”
“The product line we have now has its heritage from the six-foot ship and we have built out to a 70-foot length.
“And the boat you were on a 44-foot variant.”
Hanson underscored the working relationship with Teledyne Brown Engineering.
As Hanson described it, they had already done a first round of integration with regard to the MANTAS, but by partnering with Teledyne Brown Engineering they have been able to build a more effective integrated platform.
Teledyne Brown Engineering has engaged the global market to find off the shelf solutions which can deliver capability now and at low risk.
Hanson concluded with an explanation of how the MANTAS solution was quite unique.
“What this integrated platform is capable of doing is a single sortie mission.
“With a fairly small platform, and reduce the counter-mine task to be done in hours what used to take days.”
“The catamaran design is very stable and because you can drop it directly into the water you do not have to have a complicated crane system to get the ship in the water.
“This design means that we can operate from a wide variety of ships.
“The MANTAS itself is extremely light which means the payload goes up relative to vessel size.
“This allows us to be able to put more sensors on the vessel at one time and to integrate them onboard.
“We are very stable in a variety of sea states.
“The data that is collected onboard the vessel, gets interpreted for the anomalies back to the professionals onboard the fleet.”
In short, there is an interesting new option for the integrated distributed fleet which participated in this year’s Trident Warrior exercise.
The photo below shows Hanson aboard the vessel they brought to Trident Warrior before several of us went on the boat for a spin in the North San Diego Bay.
Bruce Hanson, Chairman & CEO, MARTAC
Mr. Hanson is a technology development executive who combines a unique blend of business acumen, perceptive entrepreneurial savvy and technical insight to create innovative solutions. Prior to founding MARTAC, Mr. Hanson was a founder and CEO of The Software Specialists, Inc. (TSS), an aerospace corporation that provided sophisticated engineering services to major defense, aerospace and avionics companies. Most of this work involved state of the art communications, navigation, surveillance, inertial and control systems that are in service throughout the world.
Under Mr. Hanson’s direct leadership, TSS developed a number of innovate approaches to develop mission critical technology systems. Mr. Hanson has a track record of converting innovative ideas into long-term income generating products supported by accomplished solution-based teams. His areas of expertise with advanced technology systems combine practical business operations with the development and implementation that span strategic planning and execution, business development, operations management, sales and revenue growth, cost, schedule and quality optimization and engineering.
Mr. Hanson has a deep passion for high performance vehicles of all kinds which led him to invest in, then design and build state of the art computer and control systems for the world’s fastest offshore racing boats. Bruce has been on the design team for some of the world’s most technologically advanced and powerful street cars. This passion led to the formation of MARTAC which is the culmination of the years of aerospace experience coupled with the high-performance offshore powerboat technology. This resulted in the development of the family of MANTAS Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicle platforms.
Bruce has been involved with a number of startups as part of the management team and as an investor. Bruce’s background as an investor in startups gives him a keen sense of investor concerns in his approach to management. Bruce holds degrees in Physics, Mathematics and Master of Electrical Engineering attending SUNY Potsdam, Clarkson College and Binghamton University School of Engineering.
Five Rafales took off July 27 from Mérignac, southwest France, with Indian air force pilots starting a 7,000 km flight to India, with a further five units staying in France for pilot training, the Indian embassy said in a statement.
“India took a significant step in strengthening air power and defence preparedness with the first five Rafale fighter aircraft, built by Dassault, flying from Mérignac airbase in Bordeaux, France to India today,” the embassy said.
That was the dispatch of the first batch of the 36 Rafales ordered by India in September 2016 in a deal worth some €7.9 billion ($9.3 billion). Dassault had met contract requirements for handing over to the client nation, and the fighters needed to be flown to the Indian subcontinent to join the air force.
The expected arrival of those Rafales comes just weeks after heightened tension between India and China, with 20 Indian soldiers being killed and an unknown number of Chinese casualties over a contested border in the Himalayas.
The French air force was supporting that Indian Rafale flight, with two A330 multirole tanker transport jets flying with the fighter jets, the French armed forces ministry said in a statement. One Airbus A330 MRTT was providing inflight refuelling, while the second unit carried medical equipment and a 10-strong team of military medical staff to help India in the struggle against the Covid 19 pandemic.
That batch of fighter jets was delivered on time and the remaining 26 units were due to be delivered by the end of 2021, the embassy said. The Rafale flight was due to land in India July 29, and included a stop over in the United Arab Emirates.
Dassault trained Indian pilots and support personnel on the aircraft and weapons, and further batches of air force staff will be trained over the next nine months, the embassy said.
French hopes of selling a further 114 Rafales to India in a €12.2 billion tender may be fading, due to the coronavirus, afternoon daily Le Monde reported May 20.
The health crisis has hurt the Indian economy, slashing the means for New Delhi to spend on foreign suppliers and raising the need for local production, prime minister Narendra Modi is understood to have said in April, the report said.
That may boost the prospects of the Tejas light combat aircraft built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, based in Bangalore, southern India, the report said. The defense ministry ratified March 18 an order for 83 of the single-seat Tejas, in a deal worth €5.5 billion. That order promoted a “Make in India” industrial policy and heavily undercut the price of foreign fighter jets proposed by Boeing, Dassault, Lockheed Martin and Saab.
However, the Indian air chief, general Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, said May 18 the light combat aircraft failed to meet the requirement set out for for the 114 fighters, as the need was“in the middle weight and is in the Rafale class,” Asian News International agency reported. That requirement could be met with increased foreign direct investment and support for the private sector, the air chief said.
The Rafales are due to be based in the northern and western borders of India, ANI reported.
There were 70 ventilators and 100,000 test kits in the A330 MRTT carrying medical assistance, the defense ministry said. The medical aid mission was decided with the foreign ministry and aimed to share lessons learnt by the military in helping civil hospitals in France.
There was also a political signal of bilateral links between New Delhi and Paris.
“This also marks a new milestone in the strong and growing India-France defense cooperation,” the Indian embassy said.
India is seen as a key arms market for France. New Delhi has ordered a powered smart bomb built by SafranElectronics & Defense,the Times of India reported July 23. The weapon bears the brand name Hammer and is an export version of the armement air-sol modulaire, a bomb which Safran previously lobbied France to boost orders to keep the line open.
The Indian air force flies a 51-strong fleet of upgraded Mirage 2000H fighters and the navy is receiving six Scorpene attack submarines. Naval Group signed up tocompete in an Indian tender for six more submarines in the P-75 (I) project.
There had been media reports a first batch of four Rafales was due to be flown in May, but that flight was delayed by the health crisis, which led to French facilities being temporarily closed.
The featured photo: The twin-engine fighter jets took off from Dassault Aviation’s facility in Merignac, France. Indian Ambassador to France speaks to pilots at an airbase in Merignac in France. (Image: IAF)
The twin-engine fighter jets took off from Dassault Aviation’s facility in Merignac, France. Indian Ambassador to France speaks to pilots at an airbase in Merignac in France. (Image: IAF)
The Rafale fighter aircraft was flagged off on July 27 by the Indian Ambassador to France from an airbase in Merignac in France as part of the two countries' 36 fighter jet deal that was signed by the two countries in September 2016. (Image: IAF)
The new Rafale jets add strategic depth and strength to India’s air combat capabilities. (Image: Twitter @Indian_Embassy)
All the pilots have been trained on the aircraft by the French Dassault Aviation company as per the agreement signed for the biggest ever defence signed by India in 2016 for acquiring 36 Rafale jets for over Rs 60,000 crore. (Image: IAF)
Indian Ambassador to France visited the Rafale Assembly line, training facilities and interacted with officials from Dassault Aviation. (Image: Twitter @Indian_Embassy)
The fighter jets will be refuelled on the way by a French Air Force tanker aircraft and take a stopover at UAE Al Dhafra airbase after which India will receive them on July 29. (Image: IAF)
The five aircraft flying to India includes seven Indian pilots including the commanding officer of the 17 Golden Arrows squadron. (Image: IAF)
I have attended the International Fighter Conference for the past two years in Berlin. I provided several analytical pieces on presentations and discussions at those two events as well as reports covering the events as well.
I was certainly looking forward to coming to Berlin and seeing my German friends and colleagues in the air combat community this Fall when the conference is scheduled to be held. But having left Australia prematurely in March and having returned to the United States in the world of COVID-19 that will not be.
But thankfully, the hosts for the conference, Defence iQ, have been working a way ahead for the conference which holds promise for providing an interesting venue for the conference which be held from the 18th through the 19th of November.
It will be a virtual conference but one which the Defence iQ team has come up with a way ahead which can make it more valuable than what many of us have experienced while living in the Zoom world.
To get a sense of how Defence iQ is working to provide a more innovative framework than has been delivered with the broad scale zoom experience, I had a chance to talk with Alexander Stephenson, Deputy Director, Defence iQ.
We discussed the approach being shaped for the event. As Stephenson explained it, the digital side of the company has been active for many years, and has provided core competencies which have been leveraged as the company faced the challenges of holding conferences in the virtual world.
As Stephenson explained it. the conference will host a number of panels through the more traditional virtual presentation methods, but will embed this approach within an innovative networking platform which allows the participants to interact with one another and to do so in way to set up chat rooms around topics of interest among the participants themselves.
They are using a networking platform called Brella which can able the participants to engage in interactive conversations around the conference framework.
According to Stephenson: “We have found at all of these official events, that the networking component is the hardest to replicate and lots of platforms don’t try to.
“Many will now be familiar with the lonely experience of attending a webinar purportedly attended by hundreds.
“With Brella, you’ll login to that web platform and you’ll answer a few questions about yourself and then it will suggest people on the delegate list you might like to meet.
“You can click on a page and set up a little private meeting room and invite people to join you as a sidebar. You can click on the conference room and look at the presentation itself, and ask questions. You can go to the list of event partners and next to each one, it has all their documents, PDF’s, videos and also the names of everyone from that company who are there.
“So you can click on them and reach out for a personal video chat. We all are trying to replicate as much networking, minus the beer and the whiskey as possible, but we’re also playing to some of the other strengths of the internet. You can see the full delegate list and you can request meetings with anyone on the delegate list and schedule them in.”
He noted that there are some advantages to the virtual conference when enabled with such networking software. They are able to have a wider range of moderators; they can invite a wider range of experts to present at the virtual event, and they can allow the military which comes free to their events to bring a larger delegation of participants to the conference as well.”
This approach allows for questions to be generated, and cross linked and answered, as well as much wider engagement than would happen in a live Q and A session as well. Stephenson highlighted: “It really shows us what questions people have. And that will obviously feed into the online discussion.”
In short, Defence iQ is providing an innovative answer to a key question: “How do we present a large event, like the Fighter Conference and make it attractive to people, but also replicate in some way that personalized experience that you get when you go to a conference?”
I am looking forward to the November event and providing my third year of coverage and analysis.
To register for the conference, please use the following link:
Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Poland accepts the Gaszyn Challenge from the Polish 1st Territorial Defense Brigade and challenges the 1st Warsaw Armored Brigade, June 18, 2020 at Bemowo Piskie Training Area. The Gaszyn Challenge is to show support for a Polish girl named Hania who is suffering from a debilitating disease.
