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 Modeling
and simulation highlight CIVIC leadership program
The Civic Leadership Hampton Roads program
spent a half-day in Suffolk focused on modeling and simulation
as it impacts
and integrates major U.S. Joint Forces Command mission areas
and initiatives.
By Robert Pursell
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(SUFFOLK,
Va. – May 1, 2006)
-- A group of local business and government leaders received
a front row look today at how
U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) uses modeling and simulation
(M&S) to accomplish its mission to prepare joint warfighters
for duties they may face around the globe.
The
visit by the CIVIC Leadership Hampton Roads focused on
the development and deployment of modeling
and simulation (M&S) and its impact on the missions and initiatives of USJFCOM.
CIVIC
Leadership Hampton Roads brings together leaders from
the across the area to connect with each other and
address
challenges facing southeastern Virginia.
USJFCOM’s work in M&S has encouraged substantial
growth in the area’s industrial and educational sectors
and brought the group to the command to learn more.
The
program today provided these partners the opportunity
to take a look
at the latest in M&S through various
discussions and simulations conducted by USJFCOM as well
as the nearby
Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center (VMASC) and the
Lockheed-Martin Center for Innovation.
The two organizations are among several
which USJFCOM partners with across the Hampton Roads area.
These partners include
numerous defense and non-defense businesses and industries,
local academia, such as colleges and universities, and the
state and local government.
According
to Gene Newman, former USJFCOM Joint Warfighting Center
(JWFC) technical director
who currently assists the
present JWFC technical director on special projects, the
Civic Leadership Institute’s visit represents “the
first group that we have presented to that is not primarily
military-related.
Over the past ten years, we have talked about creating modeling
and simulation beyond the Department of Defense. Our discussions
here today help carry that forward”
According
to Cathy Lewis, executive director of the Civic Leadership
Hampton
Roads, the organization is a unique one. “It’s
a senior-level leadership group, so all of the people that
you see here today are either CEOs or very high-level people
in their organizations and we are the only organization of
its type that draws its membership from both sides of the
Hampton Roads harbor,” said Lewis. “The organization’s
purpose is to bring all of these folks together so that they
can informally network about solutions.”
Today’s program exhibited M&S so that the Civic Leadership
Institute can take notice of USJFCOM’s efforts to develop
and deploy its capabilities with the hope to create new partnerships.
This event was an opportunity to “bring them out, let
them see it, let them touch it, and you can already hear them
buzzing about it.,” said Lewis.
“I think this is a huge benefit because these are
key decision makers for this community. They understand
that there is something
really exciting going on out here, and they can’t really
get it until they wrap their arms around it and that was
what was so important about today.”
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