@ International Microwave Symposium: Bringing an engineer’s mindset to America's defense

ANAHEIM, CALIF. – It’s no secret that America and its allies increasingly face a new kind of foe. What’s even more troubling and yet not surprising is how quickly these enemies can adapt, change course and use some of the most advanced technology available to seek any advantage possible.
As director of defense research and engineering at the Defense Department, Zachary Lemnios is urging a fresh approach at every military branch to help combat this problem. Innovation and business-like strategies should become the norm at the Department of Defense, he said, particularly whenever it applies to a technology breakthrough or upgrade that makes the job easier for those in uniform and success all the more likely.
Lemnios took full opportunity of his time on stage at the International Microwave Symposium to embrace the engineer mindset, being one himself, and lay out his goal for greater education and more collaboration with the business sector.
“We need ideas from the very best and brightest and we need to deliver those capabilities on commercial timelines,” the keynote speaker said.
With a packed audience full of engineers before him, it’s worth noting why the IEEE is holding its annual conference in Southern California. Prior to Lemnios taking stage, the event organizers talked about the large number of microwave and RF (radio frequency) professionals who live and work in the region, but it’s also home to many state-of-the-art education centers in RF technology and engineering. Many of the top academics in the field only had a short trip to make to Anaheim and there are plenty of industry titans located nearby who can feed into the discussion as well.
The week-long conference is put on by IEEE and the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, one of the 38 IEEE Technical Societies. Samir El-Ghazaly, president of MTT-S, said there are now 400,000 members worldwide. The group continues to focus on theory, techniques and applications of RF, microwave, and THz and wireless technologies.
This is why Lemnios, a 30-year member of IEEE, is in town this week. Following his keynote, he made himself available to chat informally with practically whoever was interested and he could later be seen walking the show floor, presumably trying to further immerse himself into the thinking that hundreds of business are showcasing all week.
Lemnios laid out four main imperatives that he’s aiming to adopt throughout the Defense Department:
— Reduce the cost, acquisition time and risk to all major defense acquisition programs.
— Invest in people and ideas to help prepare for the tactical issues in the future.
— Develop a series of world-class science, technology, engineering and mathematics centers that will improve capabilities for the department and the nation.
— Accelerate delivery of technical capabilities.
He added that many of the department’s platforms in place today may not be deployed for years, but once live they could be in place for decades. Development, change and replacement all take far too long, and he hopes to create a more nimble, business-like culture at the department to improve on all fronts.
Simply put, he wants the department to think like a business when it comes to systems engineering. “We need to develop on commercial timelines,” he said.
“We must rapidly respond to the rapidly changing world” and accelerate our time to adopt new systems, make changes and move forward when it’s in the country’s best interest, he added. Plenty of America’s foes have proven that they can adapt in a matter of days or weeks – Lemnios wants the department to be on the same playing field.
“We have a great opportunity to learn from each other,” Lemnios said as he concluded his talk. He encouraged everyone in the room to seek him out to share ideas and learn more about how the industry can work with the department to make his dreams a reality.