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Women Speakers at Conference Part of Sea Change for Military

One of the biggest military stories of the decade has been the gradual increase in the number of women among U.S. fighting forces on the front lines. There has been a lively debate over whether and how women should serve in the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps infantry. In the U.S. Navy, women are slowly entering the submarine force. Early this month, Los Angeles native Dominique Saavedra became the first female enlisted sailor to earn her silver dolphins pin, meaning she is qualified to work on a submarine. A chief culinary specialist, Saavedra is expected to deploy on the USS Michigan, which carries Tomahawk missiles.

Not so unusual today are women with business and technical expertise running the show in the background.

Several prominent Navy women are among the military leaders scheduled to speak about innovation during this year’s NDIA Navy Gold Coast conference in San Diego. The NDIA is the National Defense Industrial Association.

Janine Davidson, undersecretary of the Navy, is scheduled to speak at lunch on the conference’s first day, Aug. 23. Her topic is the Navy secretary’s innovation vision, which includes unmanned systems. Davidson, who was sworn-in in March, is chief management officer and deputy to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. She is a former U.S. Air Force pilot and previously worked as a Pentagon official. She holds a doctorate in international studies from the University of South Carolina and has taught college courses.

During a breakout session late in the afternoon, subject matter experts will go into more detail about all variety of unmanned systems — unmanned aircraft, unmanned ground systems and unmanned systems that work on and below the surface of the ocean — as well as the challenges and opportunities for industry in this space.

One example of unmanned systems is a 132-foot surface craft called Sea Hunter. Earlier this year, Navy scientists in San Diego began two years of tests with the odd-looking ship. Sea Hunter contains a lot of computing power and operates largely autonomously, with little human oversight. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has a hand in the project. Leidos Inc. (NYSE: LDOS) is prime contractor.

The Gold Coast conference continues Aug. 24, when Carmela Keeney is scheduled to moderate a panel on additive manufacturing, 3-D printing, rapid prototyping, experimentation and adaptive force packaging. Representatives of Navy and Marine Corps commands will sit on the panel.

Keeney has a front-row seat on advanced technology development in the Navy. She is in her 12th year overseeing the SPAWAR lab on Point Loma, where she is executive director. SPAWAR is short for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. She began her career at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory’s Ocean Systems Division in 1979 and received a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from UC Santa Barbara in 1985.

Also on the agenda is Emily Harman of the Navy’s office of small business programs, who will outline her office’s strategic priorities.

The annual Gold Coast gathering focuses on small business procurement.

• • •

Space Anomaly Causes Heartburn: Leaders of the Navy space program on Pacific Highway have known since late June that they had a misbehaving satellite on their hands.

The satellite “is currently stable, safe and under positive control,” the Navy said in a statement Aug. 3. In mid-August, a Navy spokesman said there had been no change on its status.

The Program Executive Office for Space — a SPAWAR tenant — issued a news release July 8 saying that there was an anomaly with the satellite, called MUOS-5, which was launched June 24.

The Aug. 3 statement said the satellite “experienced a failure of the orbit raising propulsion system during a transfer maneuver on June 29. The transfer maneuver was designed to take the satellite from its initial elliptical launch orbit to its final circular geosynchronous orbit. This anomaly resulted in the transfer maneuver being halted.”

The Navy likens its Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellites to cellphone towers in the sky for secure military communications.

The fifth MUOS satellite was meant to be a spare to the four previously launched satellites that comprise the network.

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) is prime contractor on the satellites. The Navy’s space program office has 45 employees.

• • •

Short Takes: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. of Poway reported that two of its unmanned Predator B aircraft took part in recent missile defense tests. A Predator B detected and tracked a ballistic missile during the Pacific Dragon exercise in late June off Hawaii.

The Japanese and South Korea navies participated in the exercise along with the U.S. Navy. GA-ASI, an affiliate of privately held General Atomics, has a contract with the Missile Defense Agency and announced the exercises in mid-August. … Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. said on Aug. 17 that it is a subcontractor to Calnet Inc. on a deal with SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific.

The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity deal could be worth more than $33 million to Calnet if its Navy client exercises all of its options. Calnet has offices in Virginia and San Diego.

Send San Diego defense contracting news to bradg@sdbj.com.

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