News From USJFCOM: Liveblogging: Joint Warfighting 2008 -- Day 1


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Liveblogging: Joint Warfighting 2008 -- Day 1

The U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) Public Affairs Staff will blog live from the three-day Joint Warfighting 2008. The command is sponsoring the event with National Defense Industrial Association, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the U.S. Naval Institute. USJFCOM’s leadership as well as other distinguished military leaders will speak over the course of the event designed to raise industry and academia's awareness of joint warfighting challenges and solutions. This liveblog will provide up-to-the-minute coverage of the presentations going on in the command's booth.

Editor's note: USJFCOM Public Affairs will provide a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed for this liveblog throughout the event as well as coverage on the command's channel on the Twitter microblogging service. Both services allow readers to track our entries in real time as they are posted. Click here to add this feed to your RSS reader and here to follow this blog on Twitter.

From Robert Pursell: 8:11 a.m. -- Kickoff -- Today we're blogging live from the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach, Va. where U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) will partner with the National Defense Industrial Associations Greater Hampton Roads Chapter (NDIA-GHRC), the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) and the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) to host the Joint Warfighting Conference 08 (JWC 08).

Approximately 5000 attendees representing military, industry, academia, and government, registered for this year's three-day conference. Titled "DoD Capabilities for the 21st Century," the goal is to reach out to all joint warfighters and represents a step forward from past events.

I'll be covering the USJFCOM booth for the next two days. The booth is divided up into sections. One is a large speaking platform where a number of keynote speakers from USJFCOM are expected to discuss where the command is and where it is headed. Another is a kiosk where USJFCOM's Office of Research and Technology Applications (ORTA) can talk with conference attendees on how to do business with USJFCOM.

From Robert Pursell: 10:08 a.m. -- Command Surgeon's Office -–

The USJFCOM booth is bustling with people now taking their seats to hear Navy Capt. Diana Novak of the Command Surgeon's Office talk about joint force health protection transformation.

Novak said the enemy is continually changing the way they fight, thus the joint warfighter needs to continually stay ahead of the game. The military medical community is right there with them and it mimics what the warfighter does.

Novak said the Command Surgeon's Office identifies different medical issues it needs to focus on using Joint Capabilities and Integration Development Systems (JCIDS) process.

"We have become the medical annex to joint capability development," she said.

From Robert Pursell: 10:22 a.m. – Joint Force Providing-- USJFCOM's Director for Operations, Plans, Training and Logistics (J3/4) Army Brig. Gen. Karl Horst just took the podium. He's discussing his directorate's role as a joint force provider.

Horst said the process of joint force providing has changed since before the Global War on Terror. He then discussed the current process of supporting the combatant commander, which is based off of two providers now, the joint force provider and the global force provider.

Horst summed up the USJFCOM role.

"The overall mission of USJFCOM is to provide mission-ready, joint-capable forces to the combatant commander," he said.

Army Brig. Gen. Karl Horst (Official photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Joe Laws)

From Spc. Andrew Orillion: 10:38 - Hear it now (mp3 file) from Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, director of operations, logistics and engineering

“What we are doing is, we are introducing sourcing tools, we are introducing automated ways to better capture requirements, to better access data, to better build our plans, so that there is visibility amongst the global community. The most important thing we can do is provide transparency in what we’re doing, so that everybody can see what’s available., everybody can see where the demands are at, everybody see where we’re allocating resources.”

Jeff Brunner. (Official photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Joe Laws)

From Robert Pursell: 11:23 a.m. -- Doing Business with USJFCOM -- Mr. Michael Lynk, the deputy manager of the Office of Research and Technology Applications (ORTA) and Mr. Jeffrey Brunner, USJFCOM's manager of Contracts Acquisition and Management Office (CAMO) have taken the stage to talk about how to do business with the command. It's pretty fitting that the booth has filled up with an audience dressed in black business suits.

The two discussed how ORTA and CAMO engage with industry and academia.

Brunner explained that CAMO focuses on Federal Acquisition Regulations dealing with contracts and other agreements.

Lynk said ORTA oversees partnership agreements between the command and other organizations and identifies new technologies that will help fulfill warfighter requirements.

"ORTA offers advice and assists with Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), intellectual property agreements, patent licensing agreements, personnel exchange and Small Business Innovative Research projects," said Lynk.

He said we will use events such as these three days at the Joint Warfighting Conference 08 to discuss our command needs with industry to see what it can do to develop partnerships with the command.

Brunner stressed that this doesn't always have to result in a contract. There are other vehicles available for doing business with USJFCOM. When a partnership is formed with USJFCOM, he said the command is focused less and less on materials.

"Our focus is on the support services area," said Brunner.

From Robert Pursell: 11:56 a.m. -- Innovation and Training Technologies -- Army Col. Mike Armstrong from the Joint Training Directorate and Joint Warfighting Center (J7/JWFC) is up now. He's discussing the innovation of distributed training technologies.

"We're working within live, virtual and constructive environments and how to make them seamless," he said. "Our role is to create a common operational picture to bring them together."

A common operational picture amongst the services, greatly benefits the warfighter.

Armstrong said the goal of his directorate is to deliver training within a joint context. In the past, everything was one dimensional when it came to the services. Now Armstrong says we're moving towards two or more services training together to get a full spectrum.

Hear it now: (mp3 file) “The first thing you start looking at is, what requirements are out there? How do we do this? What does irregular warfare mean from not just an operational tactical piece, but what does irregular warfare mean from the guys who have to support it with technology. That’s what we’re working on.”

Army Col. Mike Armstrong, J7, Joint Force Training Directorate, speaking about USJFCOM’s role in managing the future of irregular warfare and the challenges it faces.

Armstrong just wrapped up and it looks like everyone is off to lunch after a busy first morning.

From Robert Pursell: 2:22 p.m. -- Irregular Warfare -- I just got back from lunch and Navy Rear Adm. John Richardson, director of strategy and policy (J5) just kicked off a discussion on the USJFCOM Irregular Warfare Center.

I had a chance to ask Richardson a few questions after his talk and we talked about the role of the J5 in the Irregular Warfare Center.

"One of our functions is integrating across the command and also from a strategic standpoint; the strategic shift to put a bigger emphasis on irregular warfare also would come our way. So it was sort of a natural nexus of events that send this over to the J5 to start it now," he said.

In terms of integrating across the command, getting the buy in, and this engagement piece outside of the command…we can bring all of that together to make sure both inside the lifelines and outside the lifelines, we're fully transparent in standing this thing up. It seemed like a natural marriage."

I then asked Richardson to break down how the Irregular Warfare Center benefits the warfighter.

"We just have to flow to the demands," he said. "The enemy has chosen to take us on in irregular ways…what we think are irregular, but perfectly natural for them. We can either sort of go about this in a less formal way or we can recognize that this is the demand of our forces right now and by a systems approach to taking this on systematically, we chose that. It deserves that level of attention and so it's really the demand that drives us to do this. It's not something we're inventing we just have to cover what the challenge is."

From Robert Pursell: 2:54 p.m. – Walk About -- It looks like the USJFCOM booth is filling up again with another black suit audience to listen about doing business with USJFCOM again. I'm going to head over to the business kiosk and see what's up there.

I ran into Army Lt. Col. Ken Wagner of the Joint Training Directorate and Joint Warfighting Center (J7/JWFC). He's been volunteering his time to help out with the front of the booth in answering questions any visitors my have.

Here's his take on the kind of people he's seen all day.

"Most people who have been coming to the booth are people who are interested in doing business with USJFCOM. They might say, 'I have great software, hardware or contract experience in which USJFCOM could use and how do I get my expertise, my talent in your demand pool.' So we're getting them with the ORTA folks and giving them as much detail as they need."

He said thus far, things have gone pretty well.

"It's gone real well so far. It's been a very good face to face interaction, more than just going to our website, more than just talking. People have been shaking hands and trading business cards. They can get a great idea of what USJFCOM does and how they can fit into USJFCOM's enterprise."

Air Force Colonel Vincent Valdespino (Official photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Joe Laws)

From Robert Pursell: 3:33 p.m. –- C4 and Industry -- Air Force Col. Vincent Valdespino, director of the Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Systems Directorate (J6) is wrapping up the USJFCOM presentations for the day with a discussion about leveraging command, control, communications and computers (C4) in industry.

Valdespino discussed the role of his directorate and stressed the importance of keeping open the lines of communication with a unity effort across the command, so that we're speaking and acting with one voice.

He also echoed USJFCOM Commander Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis' statement, that command and control is a human endeavor that's leadership driven. He explained how the J6 does that.

Valdespino said the J6 role is getting the commander the right information, at the right time and place and enabling the subordinates the ability to act without instruction per commander intent, establishing a decision domain and being able to out-decision any potential adversary.

Hear it now: (mp3 file) “Gen. Mattis has challenged me personally, ‘How do you ensure that that network is available to me and robust enough to become an enabler for me and not a problem for me. To be there when I need it, to be there when I’m out there on the edge, in an AOR, in the high wind, in the high sand of southwest Asia, and that radio, that phone, that cell, that network is going to be there be robust enough for me. How do I know it’s going to be assured, and that the information on it is going to be reliable?’ Theses are the things that the new boss has laid out that he wants to us to worry about, that’s what I have challenged my J6 staff to take on personally and find out how we can get better at providing these kinds of things. How are we going to do it, for example in a coalition environment, not just a joint environment but a coalition environment, not just a coalition environment but a civil environment.”

Air Force Col. Vincent Valdespino, J6, director, Command, Control, Communications and Computer System Directorate, on future challenges

That's it for today. Tune in tomorrow for more live blogging from the Joint Warfighting Conference 08.