2003 JFCOM-GHRC Symposium a Total 'Sell-Out'.

More than 400 industry, academic, government and military leaders attended the 2003 "Joint Transformation Industry Symposium," sponsored in March by the Greater Hampton Roads Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association and the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Portsmouth, Va.

JFCOM's commander, Navy Adm. Ed Giambastiani, kicked off the program, explaining his command's four main functions--force provider, trainer, integrator and experimenter. He stressed JFCOM's focus on military transformation.

Air Force Brig. Gen. "Buck" Rogers described his JFCOM component, the Standing Joint Force Headquarters. SJFHQ is making it dramatically easier to form and operate joint task forces, he said. Similar units will be established in regional combatant commands around the world in 2005, he said.

Army Maj. Gen. Jim Dubik, JFCOM's director of joint experimentation, explained the command's plan for future concept development and experimentation, focusing on full-term concept development and on more rapid prototyping.

Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, noted several major transformational events throughout military history, and emphasized the need for bold, rapid and continued military transformation because of globalization and the information age. In particular, he urged improvement in information operations and urban combat.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Dan Dick, JFCOM's director of joint requirements and integration, discussed emerging joint force requirements, interoperability, advanced concept technology demonstrations, and battle management command and control. Marine Maj. Gen. Gordon Nash, JFCOM's joint training director, discussed the evolving joint national training capability, modeling and simulation for training, the joint distributed learning center and the regional security cooperation Network.

Navy Capt. Darryl Fengya, JFCOM's intelligence chief, described transformational developments in intelligence, such as operational net assessment; joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and relevant ACTDs. Air Force Brig. Gen. Walter Jones, director of command, control, communications and computers, discussed computers, communications and information assurance.

Army Col. Dan Judy explained the functions of the joint C4ISR Battle Center. Army Col. Hatch, who leads JFCOM's Joint Deployment Process Office, talked about improving the identification and flow of people, equipment and supplies to distant and dispersed locations worldwide.

Dave Pitts, from JFCOM's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, addressed the technical challenges of identifying, locating, tracking and recovering isolated or captured personnel.

Ronald Sega, director of Defense Research and Engineering, described the Defense Department's science and research priorities and funding, and about several initiatives to speed critical solutions to warfighting problems to the fielded forces.

Al Diaz, JFCOM's contracting officer, discussed the intricacies of contracting with the command, including how companies can arrange capabilities briefings. He also explained the status of JFCOM's current contracts.--Ed Kules, Greater Hampton Roads Chapter, NDIA