DSEI

Defence Equipment Security International

Spent my first day at the #DSEI or #DSEI2013 event at London Docklands ExCel Centre.  Absolutely massive event and highly political. As usual the Defence Ecosystem was particularly difficult to penetrate.  

For most of the day I could be found loitering in the Unmanned Systems showcase area.  There was a couple of really interesting presentations and a sense of innovation and purpose that seemed to be lacking from other parts of the show. The UAS CDC "Capability Development Centre" www.uascdc.com    and the AMS DE-RISC  "Advanced Mission Systems Demonstrations & Experimentation to Realise Integrated System Concepts" www.amsderisc.com  were really interesting. The Military used to love their TLA's "three letter acronyms" but these have now developed into ELA's "eight letter acronyms" which make the organisations almost impenetrable - often confusing themselves more than the enemy.  Will follow up with some of these really excellent speakers at these sessions. 

I found the RAF presentation team sessions really good and had an interesting discussion with the RAF Waddington contingent about the various ISTAR assets deployed there. Also got some good information about tracking explosives, LIDAR and stabilised optical sensors.

Very disappointed by the complete absence of business cards and social media - most of the people I met were not even on Linkedin. (but I have their telephone numbers so they cant escape)

Will be back at the event today and have thought through a number of strategies to try and penetrate this very difficult world.  I want to try and focus on Command and Control systems on Wednesday but this might be even harder than the UAV and sensor activity of the first day

Massive attendance but really difficult to winkle out experts who really know what they are talking about. Vast hordes of PR people, fluffy marketing types and "Gold Braid" encrusted foreign military delegations were the order of the day. Hard work but I will let you know how I get on. Might treat myself with a warship visit at the end of the day

#UAV #Aviation #Defence #DSEI