00;00;00;06 - 00;00;02;20 Alex Technically speaking. 00;00;02;22 - 00;00;05;18 Chelsie Welcome to our technically untechnical Technology talk. 00;00;05;20 - 00;00;07;25 Alex A NIWC Atlantic production. 00;00;07;28 - 00;00;14;26 Jason And an award winning podcast with your hosts, Chelsie Holloway and Alex Jackson. 00;00;14;28 - 00;00;17;27 Chelsie Alex, how are you doing? How are things down in Charleston? 00;00;18;00 - 00;00;20;09 Alex Things are going well,Chelsie. How about you? 00;00;20;12 - 00;00;34;13 Chelsie Good. So the latest news on my home front is we as a family got little chicks. We bought little chicks this spring and are excited. They're already turning into little teenagers and will be out in their coop soon. And my three year old and my husband have been loving. 00;00;34;13 - 00;00;36;08 Alex That sounds like a lot of fun. 00;00;36;16 - 00;00;39;09 Chelsie It's going to be good when they start laying eggs to save us a little money. 00;00;39;12 - 00;00;51;22 Alex And here in my world, I recently was hanging out with some friends and actually raised one of them who was using a one wheel, and he raised me and my power wheelchair. And so we had a lot of fun out in the parking lot. 00;00;51;24 - 00;00;52;15 Chelsie Did you win? 00;00;52;19 - 00;00;59;21 Alex Actually did win. Yeah. So it was fun. Little challenge. And I was amazed at how fast the one wheels could go as well. So that was pretty cool to see. 00;00;59;21 - 00;01;22;26 Chelsie All right. Let's jump into this episode. So we are taking you back to March. We've got a recap of one of the largest events hosted by Anaerobic Atlantic every year, the System of Systems Naval Integration Experiment or Saucony, which was basically a high level wartime readiness experiment solely focused on naval technology. The four day event took place between March 17 to 20. 00;01;22;28 - 00;01;41;08 Alex Coming up, we've got on the ground interviews from participants from this year's Ask Me event. Then I speak with Lieutenant Chase Meeks for our military moment about his career in the Navy and why he chose to serve. So you know what time it is. Let's get comfy. Turn up that volume and let's get started. 00;01;41;10 - 00;02;01;15 Chelsie We've got a fun format for you. This episode field interviews everyone you will hear from talking about sources we spoke with in the field and in real time. But before we jump in, here are some common terms within the defense technology space that are used in their answers that you may or may not know. First up we've got system. 00;02;01;18 - 00;02;26;16 Chelsie This can refer to a type of software, a piece of hardware, a digital program, or even a unique technological communication method. Then we've got the term threads or mission threads. This is a term that's used to describe different scenarios where systems are needed to realize an operational use case, and then S&P and R&D are mentioned and aka that science and technology and research and development. 00;02;26;22 - 00;02;33;28 Alex First up we hear from Ashley Landreth. NIWC Atlantic Expeditionary Warfare Department head. 00;02;34;00 - 00;02;57;09 Ashley So every year we just try to grow, with our number of systems that are participating, all with the end in mind of focusing on naval integration, mission threads as we advance to more of a great power competition environment, the need for the drive service, maritime strategy, Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard all being one naval service is that much more important. 00;02;57;09 - 00;03;42;17 Ashley So we are focused on those threads that address interoperability gaps across those three services. And so just the more systems that we have out here to experiment with and identify those interoperability gaps, the better. So if we were to go into a conflict scenario, how would we take the existing systems that we have today and how would they work when they're integrated across the joint force focusing on this type of events and addressing these, interoperable ability gaps with our engineering change proposals at the program office, or just, having resultant, an R&D ideas that come from this event for the longer term are the two outputs that we hope to get 00;03;42;17 - 00;04;04;17 Ashley every year. But every year we get higher, higher threat posture, with our adversaries. And so every year, this event is that much more important. What we are designed to do is focus on the mission. And so it's really just a good time to get everybody out in the field understanding what their systems are supposed to do and can do. 00;04;04;20 - 00;04;29;13 Ashley And then taking that to the next level of, you know, working with their partners within the organization. We invite our program office to and all of the PR systems that we support for the program office. And then, we have several other, external partnerships with the Army National Guard and the Apache helicopter with the joint base and the C-17s that are provided. 00;04;29;15 - 00;04;42;03 Ashley But we just really reach out across the Naval Research and Development enterprise, with, the different warfare centers and labs and see what mission threats that they would find of value. 00;04;42;05 - 00;05;17;04 Chelsie So at the end there actually touch on the different aircraft. And who was involved in SOSNIE this year. So here are a couple more stats to shed some light on the scale of this experiment. Approximately 45 systems were tested using four unmanned surface vessels, five unmanned aerial systems, and various manned aircraft, which included a US Army Air 64 E Apache V6 attack helicopter from McIntyre Joint National Guard Base, and a C-17, a Globemaster from the four 37th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Charleston. 00;05;17;04 - 00;05;27;29 Chelsie In total, the event had about 240 active participants and attendees, including several military distinguished visitors. Oh, that's a lot. 00;05;28;01 - 00;05;57;17 Alex That is a lot. Next up we hear from Jason Brooks. Now we get land. Excuse me. Technical lead. But first, here are some more terms to add to your repertoire. Validation. This is the process systems undergo to determine whether the technology meets the requirements of its users and its environment. The next term is coalition partners, which is referring to the numerous countries the Navy collaborates with to enhance maritime security and interoperability. 00;05;57;19 - 00;06;35;19 Jason So this year at SOSNIE. We're really looking at this aspect of each any sensor, any shooter. So we're focus on and being able to have the stack to go up. Data link and then share that information with all the different team awareness kits and our federation hub, for that, so that we can bring all that information together and share it again with all the all the teams this year, we've got a number of systems that are, that are able to pick up, their full motion video and metadata, and they've been able to verify that for their certifications, for instance. 00;06;35;22 - 00;07;06;14 Jason And then we're also looking at expanding that link 16 network to coalition partners and our joint partners, and share that information across that tactical data network and then be able to provide, you know, decision quality information to all our coalition partners, what we do here. And also we create an environment where the engineers have a lot of capability and the environment to try out different things that they wouldn't normally do. 00;07;06;15 - 00;07;25;20 Jason They're able to validate it here, and then that may become a requirement that helps out the warfighter in the future. We provide the environment, but you can meet whatever objectives you want to meet, without worrying about like an exercise scenario where everything is scripted. For instance, you can come out here, you can work at your own pace. 00;07;25;21 - 00;07;51;21 Jason We've even got, unmanned surface vehicles out in the water. They're acting as, targets for all these systems. So they go and find them and pass that targeting information on. So I think going forward, we're going to we want to maintain this open atmosphere, this, environment for the engineers so that so that the projects can meet their objectives and also have all that flexibility. 00;07;51;28 - 00;08;13;29 Jason But I think we also need to, on top of that, laid down, some more scenarios so that we can now take it to the next level where we're looking at objectives that cross, multiple projects so that it shows, maybe a certain, a certain flow. But what I think we need to be more intentional about that. 00;08;13;29 - 00;08;26;08 Jason Going forward in the future, and that we can create these objectives across all of society and, and meet higher level objectives that might be useful to the warfighter. 00;08;26;11 - 00;08;49;26 Chelsie Ashley and Jason provided the background and importance of the event. Now let's hear from both an engineer and an active duty military member to get their perspective. First, Valerie Luzinski, she's a Network Atlantic engineer, then Sergeant Evan PelaBello, a US Marine Corps data systems administrator, touches on the importance of these experiments for the lethality of the warfighter. 00;08;49;28 - 00;09;14;13 Valerie We have the GOTM-STIC out here that we're experimenting with. They are the gatekeeper on the move space truncated identity collection systems. They are biometric access control capability. We do face fingerprint iris recognition that we match against, and so we're out here taking enrollments and operating an ECP and entry control point. So we're essentially holding the access list for this event. 00;09;14;19 - 00;09;33;24 Valerie SOSNIE gives us an opportunity to come out here and prove our technology out and make sure that we're adding value both to our project and to the warfighter. So far, I think the biggest takeaway for us is that we can interface with more projects we thought possible. Even two months ago. 00;09;33;26 - 00;09;58;09 Sgt Pelobello We found the experiment useful, like all for our end. It's just, like we get to see a lot of, how, like Navy, Marine Corps, Army, how all those systems, like, kind of integrate with each other. Right? At the end of the day, it's for, like, command and control, right? We want to get the we want to get, like all the information down to the warfighter so they can fight bravely and win the war. 00;09;58;12 - 00;10;05;05 Chelsie We cover this event every year, Alex, and it never gets old. It's always so impressive to see how much it grows. 00;10;05;08 - 00;10;26;07 Alex Yes, this was the seventh year of SOSNIE, and I'm excited to see the scale of the experiments for year eight. Now let's switch gears just a little and jump into this episode's military moment. I spoke with Lieutenant Chase Meeks, who told me about his time in the Navy and advice you would give to someone interested in joining the military. 00;10;26;10 - 00;10;51;18 LT Smeeks So currently I do project engineer for the, so is Special operations, ISR solutions, IPT, working on the Naval Special Warfare, combat and craft, particularly the combat craft medium and combat combatant craft heavy in terms of different systems that we're putting on board, the actual operation mission environment, they use, as the operators, the switch to actually drive the, vessels themselves. 00;10;51;18 - 00;10;53;16 Alex And how long have you been in the Navy? 00;10;53;20 - 00;11;17;05 LT Smeeks So I'm coming up on nine years in the Navy. In June of this year. Previously, I was a service warfare officer for about five years, serving on two different ships and two different coasts and did some, combat deployments during that time. And now I'm currently an engineer and duty officer here on my first tour, finishing up, this last couple of years, working at NIWC Atlantic. 00;11;17;08 - 00;11;21;26 Alex What kind of advice would you give to someone who's maybe interested in joining the Navy or the military? 00;11;21;27 - 00;11;52;24 LT Smeeks So the biggest advice I would give is to take every opportunity you can to learn and develop yourself, not only in an academic sense, but more, you know, leadership sense. And as you, as you grow up, or maybe you're looking at going in the military. Now, I think that the biggest thing is, being a people person and being able to interact with individuals and learning how to connect and make relationships that can drive you and others to do better throughout, you know, the next generation of naval operators. 00;11;52;27 - 00;11;59;09 Alex And what has been one of your, favorite locations that you've been to or tours that you've been on. 00;11;59;09 - 00;12;21;14 LT Smeeks First tour in the Navy? I was stationed out in San Diego on the USS America, and I actually was able to go out on its maiden deployment with them in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and some of the different, interactions we had over there in the Middle East and in the Arabian Gulf. And then also probably my favorite place I've been on since I've been in the Navy was up to Fleet Week, New York City, on the USS New York. 00;12;21;16 - 00;12;40;11 LT Smeeks As the anti-terrorism officer, being a very heartfelt moment of kind of full circle of nine over 11 and things like that, that were kind of some of the driving force to help me, to make the decision to join the Navy to begin with. Kind of going up there with the ship that was partially built out of the Twin Towers, a really cool, unique experience that you don't often get, in the Navy. 00;12;40;11 - 00;12;45;05 Alex That is really an amazing experience. What was the reason why you wanted to join the Navy? 00;12;45;05 - 00;13;00;12 LT Smeeks Ever since I was a kid, I just had an overarching sense of of service and wanting to help and be a part of a team as well as serving a bigger purpose. So to me, the mission set and the reason behind why we do what we do is kind of the main thing that drives me and continues to make me wake up every day and put the uniform on. 00;13;00;13 - 00;13;03;08 Alex Well, thank you so much for your service, and thank you for joining us on the podcast. 00;13;03;12 - 00;13;06;04 LT Smeeks Thank you. 00;13;06;06 - 00;13;18;03 Chelsie Sounds like it was a good chat, Alex. He does some pretty cool work, so he's basically making vessels drive themselves, right? He's working on the future of Navy engineering. I would say this autonomous sea craft. 00;13;18;05 - 00;13;20;08 Alex Yes. He's doing great things for the Navy. 00;13;20;08 - 00;13;26;07 Chelsie It has been a great episode of full episode, lots of interesting facts that we've gotten to share to our audience. 00;13;26;08 - 00;13;31;22 Alex We brought our listeners some field interviews, which we've never done before.Chelsie, it's time to read this out. 00;13;31;26 - 00;13;40;18 Chelsie You got it. To learn more about anything we've mentioned in the podcast, check out our social medias under NAF or our Narvik Atlantic website. Links are in the description. 00;13;40;22 - 00;13;53;01 Alex This wraps up another great episode. Thanks for listening. If you have a deeper story that you think should be included in this podcast, please contact us at our Public Affairs email address which is listed in the description. 00;13;53;08 - 00;14;10;14 Chelsie Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, also known as NIWC, is the East Coast branch of the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command within the Department of the Navy, we develop a range of technologies that provide state of the art capabilities to the United States military.