ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (June 1, 2016) -- A U.S. Army research and engineering center hosted U.S. Army War College students here May 24.
The visit to the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center provided familiarization of the organization's mission and included lab tours, overview briefings and an opportunity to see new science and technology. CERDEC is part of U.S. Army Materiel Command.
The tour's first stop was the C4ISR Prototype Integration Facility, or PIF, which designs, tests and builds prototypes using an iterative development process.
Robert Zanzalari, CERDEC associate director, gave an overview of CERDEC and how it relates to the Soldier. The students focused on operational sustainment and the defense industrial base.
According to Zanzalari, the PIF is a great example to showcase the use of an RDEC's capability and the interaction with the organic and defense industrial base.
"From an R&D perspective, we're working on productizing and integrating science and technology programs as we integrate them into platforms," Zanzalari said. "The CERDEC facilities being shown during the tour represent a collective effort from a recapitalization perspective."
The students also toured CERDEC's Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate Joint SATCOM Engineering Center, or JSEC, and the C4ISR Systems Integration Laboratory, or CSIL.
The JSEC is doing relevant research and development in order to provide the best satellite communications technology for transition to the Soldier. The CSIL is the site for all lab-based risk reduction and provides a simulated, advanced lab environment for engineers to assess, evaluate and integrate new capabilities onto current and next generation tactical networks.
"The JSEC and CSIL are important components to show the students in order to gain a perspective of supporting operational missions and laboratory-based risk reduction," Zanzalari said.
Through face-to-face interaction with CERDEC leadership, the Army War College Students' visit directly provided an understanding of the center's strategic direction and increased their knowledge of technology areas.
The U.S. Army War College educates and develops leaders for service at the strategic level while advancing knowledge in the global application of Landpower, according to its website.
In conjunction with the CERDEC tour, the Army War College students visited with the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command.
"The RDECOM and CERDEC briefings and tours were extremely timely," said Col. John Cavedo Jr., a student from the Army War College. "They [RDECOM and CERDEC] really provided operational context to academic theory."
Cavedo noted that both organizations are essential for innovation and breaking technology boundaries to ensure our Warfighters maintain decisive overmatch capability.
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The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
Related Links:
U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command
U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command
Army.mil: Science and Technology News
U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center
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