ASSOCIATION OF OLD CROWS (AOC) AND THE INTERNATIONAL TEST & EVALUATION ASSOCIATION (ITEA) GOVERNMENT/INDUSTRY INTERCHANGE ON FUTURE OF EW ACQUISITION CONFERENCE POC AOC Convention Department (703)-549-1600. The Association of Old Crows (AOC) and The International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) will conduct a Government/Industry Interchange on the Future of EW Acquisition Conference on 4 - 5 September 1996 at Mitretek Systems, Inc., McLean, Virginia. The theme of this conference will be to address new acquisition procedures and new analytical tools as applied to EW systems. Dr. Marion Williams, Technical Director, HQ AFOTEC, will chair the conference. The Honorable Dr. Phillip E. Coyle III, DoD Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, will be the keynote speaker. There has been a major change in EW system procurement. Previously, ECM waveform and power requirements were provided to the contractor, with the Services assuming the responsibility of making sure that the system could defeat the threat if the system produced the required waveform and power. The current trend is to require that the contractors take on the task of defeating the threat, placing more burden and more risk on the contractor. There are indications from the Services that this trend will continue and become more evident with the contractor taking on more of the risk in ensuring that the system meets operational requirements rather than system specifications. This trend implies that the contractor will take on the responsibility for ensuring that the system demonstrates ``military worth.'' The Services and the Intelligence Agencies have instituted new procedures in the way in which Electronic Warfare systems will be developed, tested, and evaluated. The primary changes are in the way in which the contribution of EW to military worth is measured, the way in which the vulnerability of threat systems to electronic countermeasures (ECM) is assessed, and the way in which the robustness of ECM techniques is evaluated. With this background, the purpose of the AOC/ITEA symposium is to provide an opportunity for the Services and the Intelligence Agencies to present the key elements of this new process, and to discuss implementation of this process, including planned improvements in EW modeling and simulation capability, and in test infrastructure. It will also provide an opportunity for feedback on implication of this process to industry. The following topics will be addressed in the program: Acquisition Reform, both from an OSD and service perspective; evaluation of the military worth of EW systems; approaches to test and evaluation of EW systems; Program office perspectives; EW evaluation tools; and selective presentations on the future of EW acquisition. In addition, there will be several panels which will address: a users perspective discussing their view of the new acquisition process and the impact on requirements definition; a panel of distinguished industry representatives who will discuss their view of the issues and their concerns on the impact of the changes in EW acquisition; and a final panel to discuss how to address industry concerns. Session chairs will include: Mr. Tony Grieco (Dep. Dir. EW, OUSD A&T); Col Jack Booher, USAF (SAF/ACP); Dr. Martin Kamhi (CNO/T&E); Dr. William Loomis (Chief Scientist, NMPC/DIA); Brigadier General David Gust, USA (PEO IEW); Mr. Henry J. Driesse, President/Gen. Mgr., ITT Avionics. The conference will be at the SECRET, U.S. ONLY classification level and is considered to be the most comprehensive forum yet undertaken for industry and government to address these critical, important, and far reaching issues regarding major changes in EW acquisition. For further information, contact the AOC Convention Department at (703)-549-1600.

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0591 19960715\SP-0001.MSC)