How is the Electronic Supply Chain Supporting Mission Critical Infrastructures in Government?
The government focuses roughly 90 percent of its life-cycle costs toward system acquisition and sustainment based on the 2014 Defense Acquisition University (DAU) evaluation on Department of Defense programs. Within these costs, the U.S. government relies on a diverse supply chain to accomplish its mission. Though this may be robust in other technology fields, many manufacturers can be found overseas within electronics.
However, the Department of Defense is always looking to optimize its resources further and make the best use of its budget. As it looks for cost-effective approaches at the integration and the foundry levels, various challenges are seen within this ecosystem — from impacts to the supply chain, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, to continued reliance on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics that are subject to foreign-based malicious risks.
The United States must protect its manufacturing interests. Without doing so, our nation will be unable to meet its near-term and mid-term critical infrastructure requirements. We cannot wait this long for technology requirements that need to be domestically fulfilled today to safeguard our national security.
Discussion topics:
- What mitigations has the group implemented to ensure that supply chain risks due to the COVID 19 pandemic have not impacted mission partners’ support?
- Due to current supply chain impacts to COTS materials and components, how has your company taken steps to reduce malicious concerns, such as the Supermicro investigation in 2018?
- There is little focus from the commercial market in qualifying military-grade electronics. How can the Department of Defense avoid a lack of supply to critical technologies qualified for irregular warfare (rad-hard, thermal shock, extended lifetime, etc.)?
- About 60 percent of the Department of Defense systems’ life-cycle cost is in Operations and Support. How is your company minimizing the impact of obsolescence? What changes can the Department make to help companies succeed around this support?
- Within the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), there has been mention about the possible creation of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) within Defense electronics. How do you believe that this could be successful?
Panel members supporting the event:
- Bong Gumahad (Director – OSD Microelectronics Cross-Functional Team), Keynote Speaker
- Guy Eristoff (Chief Strategy Officer – Tower Semiconductor)
- John Costello (EVP – Microchip)
- Kevin McTigue (SVP – GTS)
- Vern Boyle (VP – NGC)
Agenda:
- Introduction/Remarks (5-10 min)
- Keynote Speaker Presentation (30 min, with 15 min Q&A)
- Panel Session (45 min)
- Closing Remarks (5-10 min)
Start Time: 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST (event will last ~2 hours)
Please RSVP to togwen@ustlc.org
Zoom Meeting ID: 842 517 5319, passcode: USTLC
Join Zoom Meeting: https://urldefense.com/v3/__
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8425175319?pwd=THlma3ZBVXZwUmlKWG95aTRoRmF6QT09__;!!NEiw142G!DihLRVLg5cjGImPnSvHavEQgdi9swos5WNERgjexl235_hLVA_Rta9ltzQlZOkYn$