MILCOM 2009 Kicks Off in Boston

MILCOM kicked off today starting with Plenary speaker Mr. David Gergen (Editor-at-large, U.S. News & World Report and Commentator, CNN) who discussed his views on how various presidents related to the military. He stated how past presidents from JFK to Bush Sr. all had military experience so they were familiar with the military where as more recent presidents since Bush Sr. did not have such experience so there was a learning curve as they got to know each other.

He said the Obama is off to a good start with his strategic appointments from the military and Michelle Obama's support for military families. He stated that Gates is a decisive person and has the freedom and trust of the president. The Pentagon has had to make tough budget decisions and that will continue for a while as we have the lowest revenue and the highest deficit ever. He said he thinks Iraq was handled well toward the end and sees hope that the same will hold true for Afghanistan.

The exhibition was fairly well attended but traffic could be a little stronger so hopefully that happens tomorrow. The Microwave Journal had several people meeting with various companies today as we are local and a media partner this year. Our Oct issue is available in all of the publication areas.

One thing I noticed was a number of companies were touting the OpenVPX platform as the US Department of Defense and other users are mandating improved implementation of open standards and interoperability. The VPX Systems Specification, according to their web site, defines an architecture that manages and constrains module and backplane designs and sets interoperability points within VPX while maintaining full compliance with VPX. This specification, developed by VITA members and other companies working together outside of VITA, shall be introduced into the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) in October 2009 as VITA 65 for final comment, ballot, and ratification as a standard.

We will have a wrap up summarizing what we saw at the show toward the end of the week or early next week. I am off to DC tomorrow to cover AOC and will post my experiences from that show in the next day or two.