An important conference organised by Defense News (www.defensenews.com) will be held in Washington DC on 27 and 28th April. The Cruise Missile and IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) Defence Conference will address the whole gamut of issues relating to defence against cruise missiles. It will be addressed by leading experts in USA, in uniform and out of uniform. This is the way warfare is going and even Iran has cruise missiles.

The keynote speaker will be Gordon England. Mr. England is the long serving Secretary of the Navy and now has been appointed as the Under Secretary for Defence by President Bush. 

The USA has many versions of the subsonic Tomahawk and the Harpoon missiles, which are supersonic in the final stages and Russia has a whole range of cruise missiles. Russia has supplied the older URAN E and the newer Klub family to the Indian Navy, which now also has the BrahMos supersonic missile based on the Yakhont.

The Indian Navy appears to have put all its eggs in the BrahMos basket for the Rajput, Type 17 and Type 15A frigates and its missile future is linked to the BrahMos. The Army recently got their first PJ-10 group battery and Pakistan has got the subsonic Hatf VII (Babur) missiles based on the M-55. More recently Prasun Sengupta had disclosed all the details of the secret Sagarika underwater launched missile. He did it from abroad and in India the draconian Official Secrets Act 1923, forbids writing on issues defence even on professional matters unless it is in the public domain.

It is a fact that all vendors know all the details of all Indian and foreign equipment and the only secrets that matter in today’s open world, are the operational state of the units and their equipment. This was discussed at a Seminar held by the Navy Foundation on 22^nd April, with Manoj Joshi of HT and Sujoy Dutta of the Telegraph –– the only Indian journalist who covered the Iraq war from Baghdad just after it fell.

Few realise that the subsonic missile is easy to make and its controls, computing power, algorithms and the software for terminal homing are factors that need attention and India can address these quite easily with its software expertise. The big debate now is whether to opt for subsonic or supersonic (the cruise missile has 90% kill probability) as the desired choice. The supersonic missiles cost more, have scramjet and other technologies that can fail, the controls at supersonic speed are sluggish, they are impossible to detect but more difficult to programme. Many such detailed issues and specifications of the cruise missiles and defence against them will be addressed at the Conference.

The details of the conference are appended below and we are happy to report that IDC’s own rep has been invited to the Conference and will report on it first hand.

Overview

The 2006 Cruise Missile & IED Defense Conference will bring key executive and legislative branch officials together with industry and think tank representatives to discuss the crucial technical, financial and political challenges associated with defending the United States against Cruise Missile and IED Threats.

Cruise Missile: Broadly addressing the threat by presenting a speaker panel of the nation's top military officials and members of Congress who are on the leading edge of meeting the challenge of deterring, detecting, and neutralizing cruise missiles.

IED: The growing sophistication and efficacy of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) is escalating the risks not only to ground forces but to their air support also. Innovative solutions to respond to this evolving menace must quickly be designed and deployed to mitigate one of the few tools the enemy is exploiting indiscriminately. This is one topic that’s in the news at home and on the battlefield.

Keynote Speakers

Gordon England

Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Department of Defense

On April 7, 2005, the President nominated Secretary of the Navy Gordon England as Deputy Secretary of Defense. Mr. England served as Acting Deputy from May 16, 2005 to January 4, 2006, when he was recess appointed by the President as Deputy Secretary. Gordon England was both the 72nd and 73rd Secretary of the Navy, becoming only the second person in history to serve twice as the leader of the Navy-Marine Corps Team and the first to serve in back-to-back terms. Prior to his work at the Navy Department, he was the first Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, established January 2003, to integrate 22 different agencies with a common mission to protect the American people.

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Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI)

Member, House Armed Services Committee, & Ranking Member, Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee

Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) first served the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. He returned to the House in 1991and has served continuously since then. He is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, where he is Ranking Member on the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee; he is also a member of the Readiness Subcommittee. He also serves on the Committee on Resources and its Subcommittees on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands, and Forests and Forest Health.

Distinguished Speakers

Colonel Dwyer Dennis

Commander, E-10 Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program Systems Group, Battle Management Systems Wing, Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, MA

Maj. Gen. Howard Bromberg

Deputy Director, Force Protection (J8), Joint Staff & Director, Joint Theater Air and Missile Defense Organization

Brig. Gen. Daniel Allyn

Deputy Director, Joint IED Defeat Organization, Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense

Brig. Gen. R. Mark Brown

Deputy Commanding General, Systems of Systems Integration, U.S. Army Research, Development & Engineering Command, Ft. Belvoir, VA

Brig. Gen. Francis Mahon

Commanding General, 32d Army Air Missile Defense Artillery Command, Ft. Bliss, TX

Col. David Lockhart

Deputy Program Executive Officer, U.S. Army PEO STRI (Simulation, Training & Instrumentation)

David Tillotson III

Deputy Chief of Warfighting Integration, and Deputy Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force

Commodore Ranjit Rai (ret.)

Vice President, Indian Maritime Foundation

Clyde Walker

Director, Missile & Space Intelligence Center

Mr. Dennis Gormley

Senior Fellow, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute

Ben Stubenberg

Chief, Analysis & Scenarios, Directorate for Intelligence, Missile Defense Agency

Kenneth "Steve" Callicutt

Director of Capability and Resource Integration (J8), U.S. Strategic Command

CDR David Buttram

Captain select, E-2C Requirements Officer, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations

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