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GMU C4I Center Seminar
Military Communications From Vietnam to Iraq:
Issues and Challenges
Major General (Ret.) Charles G. Sutten, Jr.
Friday, November 10, 2006 Science & Technology II Bldg, Room 320 2:00pm
ABSTRACT
Military communications have evolved considerably over the last 45 years. During some periods of that 45 years, the state of technology and the equipment in the hands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines satisfactorily supported the warfighters in the conduct of operations. During other periods, the match between the technology and equipment available did not meet the challenges of supporting operational commanders. The purpose of this talk is to examine this evolution of military communications with the objective of identifying potential areas of research or engineering development to solve outstanding problems. The talk will focus primarily on the employment of ground forces and the ability of all sources of communications to support those forces at the strategic, operational and tactical levels of war.
BIO
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Charles G. Sutten, Jr. has more than 38 years of experience in the field of information technology (IT), commanding and leading large organizations in the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, and the IT professional services industry. He possesses operational experience and knowledge of the doctrine and operational concepts for C4ISR systems from the Airborne Infantry Battalion level to the Joint and Combined level on a worldwide basis. Gen. Sutten served as a presidential trip officer in the White House Communications Agency, as the senior Signal Officer and Theater Signal Commander for Army Central Command during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, as the Theater Signal Commander and CIO for the United States Army in Europe for four years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, and as the Commanding General of the Army Signal Command supporting all Army Component Commanders and the regional COCOMs on a worldwide basis. After retirement from the Army, he managed a $100M a year professional services business unit specializing in large-scale systems integration. In 2004, he retired a second time and currently is an adjunct research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses in the area of operational testing of C4 ground systems. He has been a member of the IEEE Communications Society since 1977 when he was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at West Point. He holds an M.S.E.E. from Stanford University, an M.B.A. from Long Island University, and a B.S. from West Point.