Bytes and Pixels: Battle-winning information for the Next Generation Air Force

RAF Museum, Grahame Park Way, Hendon, London
Bytes and Pixels: Battle-winning information for the Next Generation Air Force image
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Event has ended
This event ended on Thursday 25th of October 2018
Admission
Free - inlcudes free admission to the RAF Museum
Venue Information
Royal Air Force Museum London (RAF Museum London)
Grahame Park Way, London, NW9 5LL
Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Colindale 0.57 miles

(Complimentary access to the museum between 10:00am - 6:00pm on the day; last entry 5:30pm)

Overview of the 2018 lecture:

The RAF's Strategy recognises information as the lifeblood of the Next Generation Air Force. Reliable, timely, accurate and relevant information is critical to the successful delivery of air power and the effective management of the RAF. And in the cyber-age, information, more than ever before, is a weapon in itself. As the RAF enters its second century, it depends on the skills and initiative of its cyber and information professionals to make this vision a reality.

The talk will cover:

- The demand (Air-warfare in the Information Age)
- The industrial base (What should we expect from industry? Masters of our own destiny - Being a better customer)
- The role of the RAF cyber and information trades (Innovation in technology and process - putting the bytes and pixels together into an operational system - adding the Air Power perspective to make it fit for purpose)
- The future (attracting, employing and retaining the right people - experimentation and innovation in the RAF Strategy - cyber and information services vice tin and string)

History of the lecture:

The Engineering Institutions’ Defence Lecture is organised as a joint initiative between the eight members of the PEI Defence Committee and hosted this this year by the Society of Operations Engineers. Other members of the PEI Defence Committee are IET, IMechE, IMarEST, InstRE, ICE, RAeS and BCS.

Speakers:

Group Captain Andy Cooksley MA MSc BSc CEng FIET ARCS RAF
Commanding Officer 90 Signals Unit

Group Captain Andy Cooksley was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and Imperial College London. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1988 as a Communications Electronics Engineer and has served in a wide range of roles from acquisition to operation deployments including Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

He currently commands 90 Signals Unit, the RAF's deployable communications and airfield system providers, where his responsibilities include establishing and running the RAFs Cyber and Information Services Operations Centre, and generating Airs Cyber Incident Response Teams. Previous tours include the UK's Permanent Joint HQ, where he was responsible for information assurance and defensive cyber across all the UK's deployed operations, and Military Strategic Effects in the Ministry of Defence, where he again held the cyber brief.

Andy is a reasonable distance runner, a keen (if slightly out of practice) sailor, and an enthusiastic bass player.


Flt Lt Stu Quinn read for his MEng in Electronic Systems Engineering at the University of Ulster, Augsburg Fachhochschule, Germany and Adrian College USA, graduating in 1999 and joining the RAF the same year. He initially started his service career working with the RAF Regiment doing infantry tours in Iraq with the army and commanding a surface to air military battery in the Falkland Islands.

He completed 5 tours of Afghanistan as a Forward Air Controller working in the depths of Helmand Province with the Afghan Army as well as operating in Kabul at ISAF HQ and at Kandahar Airfield.
During this period, he used his spare time and environment to complete a MA in Leadership studies with the University of Exeter. Upon returning from Afghanistan he attended the 7-month Qualified Warfare Instructors Course in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (QWI ISR) at RAF Waddington becoming the first Engineering Officer in the branch to have gained the QWI ISR qualification.

He was deployed to Nigeria for 7 months to assist local forces in operations against Boko Haram, during which time he completed a MSc in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance with the University of Lincoln. As a keen mountaineer Quinn volunteers with the RAF Mountain Rescue Service and has been fortunate enoug

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