Muphen R Whitney - Reporter for HomelandDefenseStocks.com  
June 9th, 2004

Attendees at the McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Summit and Exposition held in Washington, DC, in early June were treated to information about -- and demonstrations of -- the latest hardware, software, and systems aimed at making operations safer and more stable for those tasked with dealing with terrorism, disasters, and other homeland defense issues.

By far the most eyecatching exhibit was BAE Systems' FIRST Vehicle - a mobile platform designed to support Incident Commanders and fitted out in this case in an imposing H2 HUMMER.

"We can scale the system to various vehicles such as Suburbans, Excursions, Lincoln Town Cars, and other unarmored or armored vehicles," said FIRST Project Manager Mark Kowieski. Kowieski explained that the initial impetus for the FIRST Vehicle System began with the advent of Year 2000 and its perceived problems. The platform originally supported teams at National Guard sites and then was used by NAVAIR's special communications requirements dealing with bioterrorism reaction.

Kowieski has been involved with this project since its inception. He has seen the development of all of the system's state-of-the-art capabilities including satellite/cellular telephones, intrateam communications through handheld receivers, global positioning, crossband repeaters for interoperability, XM satellite radio, and wireless Internet access.

"Our engineers are so enthusiastic about this project," Kowieski said while a reporter looked over the H2 appreciatively. "They have been so involved with the evolution of this. There have been so many interesting problems to solve and so many new partnerships that we formed.

"The field exercises we went through really helped us prepare this System and refine it. We hope it can help prepare for everything and can help meet a State's role to ensure communication among all responding entities."

Another large-as-life exhibit that caught the eye of attendees and pedestrians strolling along DC's 9th Street NorthWest was a bright and shiny fire truck from the Sterling (Virginia) Volunteer Fire Company Inc. Fire Fighter Eric Might was demonstrating Xybernaut's mobile computer system for managing communications and logistics during a fire or other type of call.

"We are the first fire company in the U.S. to have this system," Might said proudly. "This is going to be very important throughout the fire fighting community. This is what we have all been waiting for."

The system aboard the fire truck was not the only Xybernaut product getting attention. The international company, which is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, brought along many of its wearable products and systems to its 8th Annual International Conference on Wearable Computing (ICWC), which it held in conjunction with the McGraw-Hill event.

It was hard to keep one's hands off - and to keep off of one's head or torso -- products such as the various Atigo models, the Mobile Assistant V, and the Mobile Assistant TC. It is easy to see why the Gartner Group projects that by 2007 more than 60 percent of the population aged 15 to 50 of the European Union and the United States will carry or wear wireless computing communications devices at least 6 hours per day.

More prosaic, perhaps - but no less important to homeland security - were the exhibits by the other main sponsors of the Summit: Lucent Technologies displayed its network reliability and security solutions designed to provide a tool that will serve as a model throughout all different industries; Honeywell Systems showcased its Pro-Watch software suite that offers security management "from the Office to the Enterprise"; and Northrop Grumman demonstrated with a brief disaster scenario video its comprehensive VIS2TA technology solution, which is a Virtual Integrated System of Systems-Tool for Awareness, Analysis and Action.

Muphen R. Whitney

Miss Whitney brings a background in systems analysis, journalism, and marketing/communications to her work with ECON. For more than three decades she has provided marketing/communications consulting services and writing/editing services to companies in the high tech, biotech, financial, medical, and legal fields. 

Her recent work as Acting Executive Director of the Alliance for Homeland Security gave her invaluable background, experience, and contacts in the areas of homeland defense and security. Miss Whitney’s degree in Economics is from Columbia University (she began as a Biology major, however, and has maintained a lifelong interest in science, technology, and medicine).

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