The Defense Strategies Institute’s (DSI) Assured Positioning, Navigation & Timing (PNT) Summit will take place April 14-15 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia.
According to DSI, the event will bring together members of the military services, Department of Defense (DoD), federal government, industry and academia in a “town hall” style forum to discuss how important GPS and space-based PNT systems are to the overall resilience of the warfighter, as well as critical infrastructure across the United States and abroad.
The 2021 Assured PNT Summit also will offer senior-level insight into how the U.S. military has been a leader in integrating PNT into its everyday operations and how such capabilities have become vital to the military’s ability to shape the global arena, deter aggression, and fight and win wars.
Confirmed speakers for this year’s event include William Nelson, SES, director, APNT CFT, Army Futures Command; Brig. Gen. Heather L. Pringle, USAF, commander, Air Force Research Laboratory; Anthony C. Smith, SES, director, C3I, DoD CIO; Richard De Fatta, SES, director, U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Center of Excellence; Cordell “Del” DeLaPena, SES, program executive officer for Space Production Space & Missile Systems Center, USAF; Harold W. Martin III, SES, director, National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing; and Col. Jason Joose, USA, chief of staff/APNT signature effort lead, Army Futures Command.
A number of topics will be covered at the 2021 Assured PNT Summit, including:
- Leading current DoD initiatives toward integrating new PNT capabilities to help the Warfighter remain resilient in a dynamic threat environment;
- Synchronizing PNT, navigation warfare and space capability development efforts across the Army to help reduce key capability gaps;
- Delivering resilient, affordable and sustainable space capabilities such as modernized GPS to enhance warfighter superiority;
- Providing alternate PNT for potential GPS-denied environments;
- Accelerating the implementation of cutting-edge Air Force research projects such as NTS-3 GPS Satellite to provide the most value to the warfighter;
- Developing critical PNT-related products to enable a Soldier’s PNT capabilities in all warfighting domains;
- Overseeing the collection of GPS-related information from multiple federal agencies in an effort to improve and maintain space-based PNT capabilities;
- Advancing efforts to provide GPS protection for all naval air platforms; and
- Detailing the Department of Homeland Security plan to test the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure systems, networks and assets if PNT services were to be disrupted or manipulated.