The 2012 Sea-Air-Space Exposition kicked off at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. with an official opening ceremony and ribbon-cutting April 16.
After the ceremony, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert took part in a panel entitled “Service Chief Update” where he talked about the importance of events like the Sea Air Space Exposition for industry leaders to come together with Navy leadership.
“The Sea Air Space Exposition is really our premier get together with industry and with the Navy,” said Greenert. “It provides a forum for us to talk about what capabilities we need and to find out how industry is doing it and what ideas they have, and we need their ideas.”
Greenert also spoke about how the Tenets and new Navigation Plan guide the Navy’s plans and budget investments.
Also during the expo the Navy unveiled its newest unmanned underwater vehicle, the Knifefish. The Knifefish uses low-frequency capability to go after buried and crowded mines. This critical capability will bolster the littoral combat ship, (LCS), mine countermeasures mission package and continue to expand the LCS arsenal for mine warfare missions.
Attendees had the opportunity to sit in on the “Secretary of the Navy Luncheon” where Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus spoke about the future of the Navy.
“The technology that we have today and the ability to use our fleet today is astoundingly different from what it was a hundred years ago but also different from what it was twenty years ago,” said Mabus. “The bottom line is we will have the right number of the right kind of ships to meet all our missions under new defense strategy.”
During the luncheon the 2011 Adm. Vern Clark Unit Safety Awards was presented to the Safety Department of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron to and the 2011 Adm. Vern Clark Individual Safety Award was presented to Steven Edward George from Naval Construction Training Center in Port Hueneme, Calif.
Following the luncheon were several roundtable sessions, including the Performance Based Logistics, (PBLs): It’s All About Performance, where Rear Adm. Mark Heinrich, commander, Naval Supply Systems Command and chief of Naval Supply Corps spoke about their importance.
“PBLs are a part of what NAVSUP [Naval Supply Systems Command] has done since we really started down this journey in the early mid-nineties,” said Heinrich. “When we first started PBLs we were really focused on improving performance and we did exactly that.”
The Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition is three days of seminars and demonstrations highlighting the latest maritime-related technologies and solutions. The symposium provides an excellent opportunity for Navy policy and operational leadership to interact with industry representatives to discuss and debate common interests and concerns.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, April 18, 2012; Image: navy