AFCEA's Emerald coast chapter honors keynote speaker

  • Published
  • By Capt. Laura Ropelis
  • 505th CCW Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  The commander of the Air Force operational command and control wing at Hurlburt Field was honored at a luncheon April 2 and invited to speak at the Emerald Coast Chapter of the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association.

Integration of virtual, live and constructive technology capabilities to achieve cross-domain dominance and the importance of operational command and control was the focus of the discussion at the AFCEA Emerald Coast Chapter luncheon, as President Lt. Col. Rob Lyman, announced the keynote speaker Col. Jack Shanahan of the 505th Command and Control Wing.

"The 505th CCW is a unique organization in the Air Force. Command and control is a sweet spot for communicators supporting network centric operations. This is a great opportunity to connect civilian and military communication professionals in an environment to meet the challenges of the future together," Colonel Lyman said.

Colonel Shanahan began by emphasizing the importance of operational level command and control.

"Victory in the 21st century warfare will belong to those who excel at operational level command and control," Colonel Shanahan said. "Operational level command and control has become the indispensable means by which commanders get the awareness they need to assert authority and direction over their assigned and attached forces."

In the high-tech age of "speed of light" information flow, asymmetric warfare and cyber technology, the importance of how to train the newest generation, test the technology, employ and integrate different command and control systems across technological domains and networks impacts interoperability and cross-domain dominance.

Overwhelming amounts of information and technology are readily accessible over global networks, yet systems don't always talk to each other. Cross-domain dominance is achieved by integrating high-tech systems to work seamlessly across domains. Once this occurs, unified command and control enables joint audiences to communicate and execute their mission down to the tactical level through the Theater Air Control System.

"Communication provides both the figurative and literal 'backbone' of every 505th CCW mission," Colonel Shanahan said, "The primary challenges to cross-domain integration center on distributed operations, enterprise information management and multi-level security."

The 505th CCW is responsible for advances in command and control excellence evident by the Department of Defense 2007 Modeling and Simulation awarded for Virtual Flag to its subordinate unit, the Distributed Mission Operations Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

Colonel Shanahan then emphasized the importance of Airmen to the wing's mission.

"Ultimately, warfare is all about the people, not the gadgets. We focus on people, processes and systems, in that order. AFCEA and its members play a key role in transforming the Air Force for the 21st Century."

The 505th CCW provides training opportunities uniting forces from the United States Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy and international coalition partners with the technological expertise of key military, government and contracted personnel in virtual, live and constructive exercises to assess capabilities and assure cross-domain dominance and readiness.

This virtual, constructive and multi-level training enables joint forces to communicate globally and coordinate their virtual networks for new technology training that otherwise would be too costly to test if training was conducted live. It allows for preparation of network centric systems and cross-domain integration prior to employment of these systems while increasing the safety, technological and tactical skills of battlefield Airmen prior to deployment.

Colonel Shanahan has a distinguished career. He is a master navigator with more than 2,600 flying hours, primarily in the F-4D/E/G and the F-15E. He has two master's degrees in national security/strategic studies and national security strategy.

The 505th CCW, an Air Combat Command unit assigned to the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, is comprised of more than 870 military personnel, government civilians and contractors at 10 locations across the U. S.

The Emerald Coast Chapter, led by the Commander of the 96th Communications Squadron, Colonel Lyman focuses on communication and electronics within the Armed Forces and provides communication professionals with professional development opportunities. The local chapter also awards teacher grants for projects. It supports local science fairs and gives college scholarships to local students. As a support network, AFCEA is an active voluntary program, which has experienced pivotal growth under Colonel Lyman's leadership the past two years and is funded by local companies and the help of the local community.

AFCEA promotes excellence in education with scholarships, awards, grants and prizes presented annually to students studying the scientific and technical disciplines that support communications, intelligence and information systems.

"With Air Force Cyber Command on the horizon, the future of the 505th CCW and AFCEA are interrelated, and we look forward to our relationship as we grow as a chapter," Colonel Lyman said.

More information on AFCEA International can be found at www.AFCEA.org.

(Editor's note: 2nd Lt. Barrett Darnell contributed to this article)