How are Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Becoming the Critical Enablers for JADC2?

Christopher Worley is director of Digital Innovation for Defense & Civil Solutions, a mission area of the Space & C2 Systems product line at Raytheon Intelligence and Space. He leads software development, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Digital Engineering and advanced digital technology incubation, development and transition for the mission area. Prior to RI&S, Worley served in the U.S. Air Force for 25 years as an Intelligence Officer, most recently as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Director of Intelligence and previously as the Air Force Technical Applications Center’s Commander. In these positions, and throughout his career as an Intelligence Weapons Officer, Worley advised Department of Defense executives on the spectrum of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance technical capabilities, sensor operations and information technology integration. Worley has extensive international experience across the inter-agency and with Congress. Specifically, he led operations in 59 different nations and worked directly with the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency with Nuclear Weapon Treaty monitoring, and the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction counter-proliferation strategies. In previous assignments, Worley was responsible for developing the Air Force’s first Wing-level technology innovation laboratory, establishing and commanding a signals intelligence squadron as an expansion of the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System, and leading requirements and assessments for the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence’s ISR Task Force.

Dr. Jim Wright has been Technical Director for the RI&S Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems (ISRS) mission area since May 2019. He has over 30yrs of experience in radar, synthetic aperture radar, electro-optics and infrared, lasers, laser radar and sonar technology and systems development. He was a staff technologist early in his career and has grown in increasing roles of responsibility including program Chief Engineer, Chief Scientist, Business Unit Manager, Business Development Director, Program Director, and site General Manager. This background allows him to combine both science and engineering understanding with Profit and Loss (P&L) management experience in supporting program area and business unit leadership and teams. In his current ISRS role, Dr. Wright identifies strategic mission and technology issues and opportunities affecting growth of the ISRS business, and implements engineering and technology projects supporting product line roadmaps and business capture goals. Sample projects include developing strategy and increasing access to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) technology and capabilities, assessing key technology supply issues and developing alternatives, and improving modeling and analysis resources supporting system development and marketing effectiveness. Dr. Wright also provides strategic and technical guidance to key ISRS, RIS and RTX strategy and proposal activities related to ISR, development of product roadmaps, and oversight of the ISRS IRAD investment portfolio. Dr. Wright joined Raytheon in 2015 and was assigned as Director of Strategic Initiatives in Advanced Concepts and Technology (ACT). In this role he initially led the significant High Energy Laser and Atomic Clock investments, including working with leadership in SAS and Corporate to develop new strategic directions for both. In 2017, he became Director of Advanced Electro- Optics (AEO) in ACT supporting ongoing technology development and transition of significant new AEO capabilities helping to open new large franchises in ISRS. Biography Prior to joining Raytheon, Dr. Wright was General Manager of Lockheed Martin’s facility in Bothell, WA responsible for Laser and Sensor System technology and product development. He was also Vice President of the Wholly Owned Subsidiary Lockheed Martin Aculight. This role involved P&L oversight for five product/market areas and included all development and production activities. During this period, he proposed, built a cross-Corporate team, and was named as the Executive Lead for one of the largest investments across the LM Corporation with visibility to the CEO and Corporate staff. Previously, Dr. Wright held various roles at Lockheed Martin’s Coherent Technology organization, including Business Development Director and Program Director, leading teams developing laser and laser radar capabilities for ground, air and space applications. Prior to this, he opened the Florida Regional Office for Arete Associates and led its growth and capture of two significant multispectral EO/IR EMD programs, including winning Arete’s Top Manager award for three years in a row. Early in his Defense career, Dr. Wright worked for the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) developing synthetic aperture radar and sonar capabilities. And, during graduate school, Dr. Wright spent three years working at IBM, Corp. developing machine vision capabilities for manufacturing automation. Dr. Wright received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His MS research was in radar signal processing and his PhD research was in correlating human visual perception to machine vision analysis. He obtained his first security clearance while doing radar research in college, and has held various collateral, special access and SCI clearances throughout his career.

Dr. Carlton Reeves is a Vice President of defence and intelligence sales at C3 AI, a leading enterprise AI software provider. Previously he was a technology-to-market advisor at the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy. Previously, Dr. Reeves was a Technology-to-Market Advisor at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). He was responsible for leading the path to market approach for several programs including the Traveler Response Architecture using Novel Signaling for Network Efficiency in Transportation (TRANSNET), NEXT-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated on-Road-vehicles (NEXTCAR), and Network Optimized Distributed Energy Systems (NODES). He also assisted a wide variety of other ARPA-E Technology-to-Market efforts, preparing breakthrough energy technologies for transition from lab to market. Prior to joining ARPA-E, Dr. Reeves worked with President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Preceding his time at OSTP, Dr. Reeves was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Research Foundation where he worked closely with faculty and student entrepreneurs by helping them bring their novel ideas and research to market. Dr. Reeves provided the knowledge and assistance needed to evaluate commercial opportunities, define business models, develop business plans, and identify resources to advance early stage enterprises. Dr. Reeves has launched several of his own businesses and is a published author. He was also named a University Innovation Fellow, a joint venture between Stanford University’s National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation and VentureWell (formerly the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance). Dr. Reeves holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Michael Fowler is the assistant director for Autonomous and Multiagent Systems for the Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology at Virginia Tech responsible for driving and providing thought leadership into the centers research on autonomous systems, mission orchestration, distributed intelligence, and security for wireless and unmanned systems with currently over $5M in active research programs. His research focus is on the convergence of distributed intelligence and machine learning for decision making under uncertainty for embedded applications including drones, satellites, IoT, and wireless communications. He has accumulated over 10 years of experience managing and performing research in security, wireless systems and artificial intelligence at Harris Corporation and as faculty at Virginia Tech. He has received a Masters in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Virginia Tech. During his professional career, he has obtained professional certifications in project management (PMP) and information security (CISSP) along with Six Sigma Black Belt training.

Thomas Withington is a writer and analyst specialising in electronic warfare, radar and military communications. He has over 20 years' experience writing on these subjects for a wide range of specialist and general publications. He has also worked as a consultant and adviser in these areas for several leading government and private sector clients, and is a regular commentator on military uses of the electromagnetic spectrum for leading media organisations around the world.