Mission Planning User's Conference to be held Aug. 7-10

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • ESC Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. (August 3, 2007) --  The 13th annual Mission Planning User's Conference will kick off next week in Orlando, Fla., running from Aug. 7 through 10. The conference will be hosted by the Electronic Systems Center's 951st Electronic Systems Group and the Paul Revere Chapter of the Air Force Association.

ESC Commander Lt. Gen. Chuck Johnson will welcome the nearly 1,400 attendees during the opening general session. The keynote speaker this year will be Maj. Gen. William M. Rajczak, deputy director for Joint Capabilities Development and Joint Doctrine Directorate at U.S. Joint Forces Command, Norfolk, Va.

"The conference is designed to have mission planning enterprise participants - including program managers, MAJCOM operators, industry partners and the test community - interact with the Mission Planning Systems users," said Col. Daryl Hauck, commander of the 951 ELSG. "This allows us to get their feedback on the systems in the field, as well as systems planned for the future."

Organizers have set up more than 200 side sessions to allow users to huddle with developers and government managers. During these sessions, which will be conducted during the three days following the opening day agenda, participants can examine the details of mission planning system capabilities and performance.

Past Mission Planning User's Conferences have provided program managers with some very valuable comments, which in some cases led to significant direction shifts and new initiatives, the colonel said.

User interaction at the conference has been so valuable that other programs have sent representatives in the past, and plan to do so again this year. Hanscom's Theater Battle Management Core Systems and Weather programs will be there this year again, looking for more user feedback. In addition, more than 70 allied air forces' representatives will be present.

"The conference is dedicated to finding new ways to serve the warfighters' needs, and we expect this year's event to once again help us do exactly that," Colonel Hauck said.

CONTACT: Chuck Paone, (781) 377-5078, charles.paone@hanscom.af.mil