09.20 Chairman’s Address And Opening Remarks

09.30 Morning Round Table Session: Networked Enabled Command And Control For The America’s Navies

Led by Professor Norman Friedman, International Naval Consultant

The need to develop effective Command and Control capabilities will be felt ever more acutely in the coming years. The ability to communicate between a Navy’s platforms, partner organisations and international allies will be a critical factor in protecting the national interests of Central and South American nations. This session will examine the most pressing issues that require attention in developing C2 as enabler of an effective fighting force.

Drawing on Professor Friedman’s extensive experience with navies around the world, we’ll explore the major steps that nations seeking to boost their C2 capabilities must first identify and then proactively develop a course of action for. The role of the network will be central to these discussions, identifying the main Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance capabilities that are essential to developing a net-centric C2 system and the potential issues of integrating new ISR technologies within the existing force structure.

The session will then move to conclude by analysing the roles and missions these net-centric systems will be called upon to support and enable. By understanding better the scenarios and operations that forces are likely to face (e.g. coastal defence, drugsmuggling interdiction, broad area surveillance etc), we can look to establish a clearer understanding of what new requirements will look like and how they can be procured efficiently.

11.30 Protecting National Sea Resources And The Maritime Environment

• Overview of the Medusa Project & the Role of R/V Cabo de Hornos
• Integration of key capabilities
• The role of sophisticated hydrographic survey equipment in EEZ enforcement strategy
• An overview of advances in Synthetic Aperture Sonar

Jan Haug Kristensen, M.Sc
Regional Manager Americas
Kongsberg Maritime

13.30 Design, Construction And Operation Of Advanced Multipurpose Composite Platforms

• Evolution of composite materials and their applicability to fulfilling the requirements of future naval platforms
• Performance and economic advantages of composites for naval platforms
• Lessons learned from composite naval platforms
• Sourcing composite vessels: cost-effective, high quality manufacturing of advanced composite vessels

James Jones
Technologies Manager
DIAB

14.10 Afternoon Round Table Session: Debating Force Development For Littoral And Blue Water Naval Forces

Led by Rear Admiral Jacob L. Shuford (Ret’d), Former President US Naval War College

Having recently stepped down from his position as President of the U. S. Naval War College, RADM Jake Shuford has spent the last five years directing war gaming and strategic and operational analysis focused on defining future maritime requirements. Responsible for the geo-strategic and operational analysis that underpins the new U.S. Maritime Strategy, he has been closely involved with navy and coast guard leadership around the world to better understand how threats are evolving and the implications for maritime capabilities and force design in different regions.

Admiral Shuford will review the seminal motivations for the evolving maritime strategy and consensus views on several key imperatives for the world’s navies and coast guards. He will also explore some implications for national rights and responsibilities associated with the evolution of thinking regarding UNCLOS.

With this discussion as context — along with the Netcentric concepts explored during the morning session, the afternoon workshop will seek additional perspectives to draw some conclusions broadly relevant to maritime security requirements of most littoral nations but focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.

The workshop will constitute a panel of senior officers to provide national perspectives on issues relating to regional and transregional strategic maritime objectives. The panel will provide the framework to explore the validity of these objectives, along with the political, financial, technological impediments to achieving them. The list of issues is expected to include such things as generating political support for national investment in maritime capability and capacity; technology transfer/cooperation and joint ventures; information exchange and regional/international architectures; and trade-offs between capability, capacity, technology and affordability. The workshop and panel discussions will seek to establish recommendations for “ways ahead”.

16.30 End Of Day 2