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Military expo { September 18 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31488-2002Sep17.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31488-2002Sep17.html
A Look at Latest In Tools of War
Military Expo Attracts Big Guns, the Curious and Protesters in NW
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 18, 2002; Page B01
On a sprawling carpet in the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, air-to-ground missiles sit like museum exhibits on carefully lighted pedestals. Men unaccustomed to piloting anything bigger than a minivan grab throttles in make-believe cockpits. Flat-screen monitors reveal that an inscrutable piece of metal behind plexiglass is actually part of a space-based missile defense system. And two men dressed as Egyptian pharaohs explain to an officer in uniform that they, too, are affiliated with the Defense Department.
The scenes come from the Air Force Association's annual Aerospace Technology Exposition, which challenges the world's biggest defense contractors to join a battle of exhibition booths. The corporations, many of which regularly pen high-dollar contracts with select expo attendees, take the challenge very seriously.
"Because this is Washington, you get a lot of real leaders from the Air Force stopping by," said Chuck Morant, with Lockheed Martin's business development division. "At a lot of conferences you just get people . . . in a very specialized division that's being showcased, but here you have everyone from the young enlisted guys just checking things out to the folks who actually pay the bills."
Because the debate over potential military action in Iraq is hot, they also get protesters who don't like the idea of bombs -- albeit inert ones -- being showcased in their city. On Monday, the first day of the three-day event, antiwar demonstrators gathered outside on Connecticut Avenue: "One, two, three, four, we don't want your oil war!"
"I'm here to represent all the people who will die because of the decisions made at this hotel during the next three days," said Art Laffin, a demonstrator from the District.
Many of the 50 or so protesters hoped that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who had been scheduled to deliver the expo's keynote address, would glimpse their signs. But inside the hotel, Gen. Gregory S. Martin, the commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe, stepped to the podium. "I know I'm not exactly the guy you thought would be here today."
Whether it was delivered by Rumsfeld or a replacement, the protesters had anticipated the keynote message and railed against it all morning. Martin suggested that the development of weapons technology is a patriotic endeavor that deserves to be celebrated and encouraged. And before the expo closes this afternoon, an estimated 8,000 military members, government employees, congressional staff members and foreign government representatives are expected to do just that.
John Buckland, a flight test engineer with Boeing, strapped one of them, U.S. Air Force Maj. Mike Saunders, into a headgear with electronic goggles. The goggles transformed the image on the video screen in front of Saunders into a three-dimensional picture of what he would be seeing if the electronic simulator was an actual 767 RARO III refueling aircraft.
Buckland strapped the goggles on a steady stream of browsers, guiding their hands to the throttles that would allow them to mechanically guide a boom down to an unmanned combat vehicle and fill it.
Boeing is marketing the RARO III around the world. The company has a contract pending in the United States, but approval from the secretary of the Air Force and from Congress is still needed. The simulator display -- like many of those from the 100-plus corporations represented at the expo -- is just another tool to help seal deals that bring in billions of dollars for major contractors each year.
"It's one thing to read about something on a piece of paper and another to grab something with your hands," said Buckland, who said he had already strapped in several congressional staffers. "I'm getting a tremendous amount of Air Force folks, obviously, and also have had some folks from France in. I expect Sweden will be here. Saudi Arabia will be here, and numerous other countries that are interested in tankers."
None of them, though, will be crating up merchandise. The show is more about promoting brand names among both military procurement officials and other contractors than it is about inking arms deals. That, contractors hope, will come later.
Lt. Col. M.K.P. Dorey, an assistant Canadian Forces Air attache, made the rounds in uniform yesterday, checking out the latest in night-vision technology and boning up on new developments in strategic airlift.
"After [Monday], I sat down with a list of things I thought might be of particular interest to our country," Dorey said. "It's important for us to stay in contact with different innovations, and this gives us an opportunity to see some of the behind-the-scenes companies that you don't read about that often."
The companies are not all targeting their wares to high-ranking officials. Even visiting high school ROTC members got detail-rich spiels. As Morant, of Lockheed Martin, pointed out: "Weapons are getting so sophisticated and even the simple projects can be in development for 10 years, and these young guys are going to be the decision-makers of the future."
Raymond White, 17, attended with about 25 other ROTC members from his high school in Camden, Del., for a field trip. At Titan Systems Corp.'s booth, he stared at spinning Luneburg lens antennae, which, a salesman told him, cover 10.7 to 12.75 GHz for global operations. When he stepped away from the display, White offered a confession:
"I'm kind of confused about what it is, exactly," he said. "I've been looking at weird gadgets all day, and most of this just goes way over my head. But they look cool."
That's not a problem for the companies. Business interests regularly take a back seat to outright curiosity, and even if few people can understand the mechanics of, say, hyperspectral surveillance systems, almost everyone can enjoy looking at three-dimensional video monitors through spacey-looking glasses.
If that doesn't do it, then there's a complimentary back-scratcher emblazoned with a corporate logo to take home. Or a complimentary coffee mug. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a computer mouse pad, or a souvenir golf ball, or a magnet. Most large exhibitors offer shopping bags emblazoned with their logos to help visitors carry the freebies.
And some exhibitors embraced a spirit of lightheartedness. Greg Caruth manned a display for the Defense Acquisition University, a Fort Belvoir-based institution that trains Defense Department program managers. Caruth and a colleague were dressed like pharaohs, with gilded furnishings and a backdrop of hieroglyphs and tomb paintings.
The idea, he explained, is that Defense Department program managers at the expo face the same challenges as the pharaohs did: finding the right material and labor.
"We were Leonardo da Vinci a couple years ago," Caruth said. "He was a brilliant inventor, but he lacked program managers to carry out his projects."
Like many in the industry, Caruth embraces the expo as a chance to let loose and have a little fun, to pass out a lot of business cards and to try to fall in line with the theme of never-ending progress by topping the exhibit from the year before.
"One year we were Sun Tzu, the guy who wrote 'The Art of War,' " Caruth said. "That one went over quite well."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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