Posted on 06/23/2002 1:49:13 PM PDT by quietolong
The US Military Must Stay Strong
Publisher/Editor Jack Browne
Military electronics has long been the backbone of the microwave industry. For many companies, it was the only source of business. But then that long-await-ed commercial application—in wireless communications— came along during the 1990s. Many companies were lured by all the promises of fast growth and wealth from wireless service providers, infrastructure builders, and handset suppliers, and many said “farewell” to their former customers on the military side.
Business is cyclical in most markets, however, and the microwave industry is no exception. Almost as quickly as the wireless markets emerged and expand-ed, they seemed to fade and collapse. And many of those companies who had been quick to leave their traditional military customers for lucrative, higher-volume commercial wireless customers got to experi-ence the uncomfortable taste of crow.
The two terms of office held by Mr. Clinton during the 1990s represented tremendous commercial prosperity, but at a price to our military. The US military has long carried an aura of invincibility that has served as a deterrent to hostile forces. As Mr. Clinton slashed more and more away from the defense budgets during his years as President, hostile forces and terrorists around the globe began to believe that perhaps the US military was not to be feared, that it was not the unstoppable force of years past.
Mr. Bush has taken bold steps to correct matters for the military. And the microwave industry is seeing some of the trickle-down effects of the additional funding, especially welcome during a time of softened wireless business. The Military Electronics Show (MES), scheduled for September 24-25, 2002 in the Baltimore Convention Center, is our small way of trying to help bring greatness back to the US military. It is an event aimed at design engineers working in mil-itary electronics, with the intention of providing them a venue for sharing technical ideas and spending some time with suppliers.
So far, some prestigious engineers have expressed interest making tech-nical presentations at the show, including Steve Best of Cushcraft, Dick Bernstein of BAI Aerosystems, Uri Yaniv of Elcom Technolo-gies, and Radha Setty of Mini-Circuits. Presentations will be one-half hour in length and covering a wide range of topics, from components, receivers (Rxs), and transmitters (Txs) to software and measure-ments.
If you would like to make a presentation at the show, drop me a line at jbrowne@penton.com with your presentation idea. Join us in helping to make the US military strong once more.
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