2009 Issue 1 - Raytheon

The Rapid Initiatives Group:
Responding to Today’s Threats
The mission of Raytheon Network Centric Systems (NCS) Rapid Initiatives Group (RIG) is to explore and pursue
rapid and/or adjacent market opportunities to grow beyond the product lines’ core businesses. We target
customers with critical near-term needs requiring unique, high-assurance solutions.
The RIG, led by NCS Vice President
Gene Blackwell, is a strategic business
growth organization that operates in
a streamlined, rapid-response environment
to identify opportunities, assess and shape
their strategic value, develop solutions and
form partnerships, and transition the pursuit
to the appropriate Raytheon product line.
The 12 members of the RIG are currently
involved in 40 domestic and 30 international
opportunities in more than 20 countries.
Many significant opportunities have been
identified in:
Infrastructure protection
Critical asset protection
Border security
Crisis management
Cyber security
Civil command and control
ENGINEERING PROFILE
Tim Smith
Engineering
Fellow, IIS
In 1986, Tim
Smith graduated
from the
University of
Maryland
with a degree
in aerospace
engineering.
Upon graduation, he was faced with
a decision: Should he follow his
classmates and take one of many
industry jobs, or take a relatively
low-paying job at a government lab?
For Smith, it was an easy choice.
He spent several semesters as co-op
employee in the Aviation & Surface
Effects Division of the David Taylor
Research Center, the U.S. Navy’s premier
platform research lab. “It was a
cool place to be in the 1980s. The
cold war was still on, the ‘100 knot
Navy’ initiative was winding down,
Historically, many security threats were
effectively and affordably addressed using
conventional technologies such as metal
detectors, surveillance cameras or access
controls. These controlled, single-sensor,
binary decision techniques are ineffective
for today’s asymmetric threats. Most — in
some cases all — technical challenges have
been solved; the key is bringing them
together effectively and affordably. Also
critical is user adoption of incremental, fundamental
and sometimes revolutionary
changes in products, applications or
processes that solve these new challenges.
Recasting the opportunities listed above
into paradigms, they could be rewritten as:
Threats in which the enemy has a significant
return on investment advantage.
For example, tens of millions of dollars
in damages can result from an attack on
and stealth was just taking off,” he
said. “The lab did truly breakthrough
technology research on
hydrofoils, hovercraft, helicopters,
submarines, hypersonic aircraft, racing
boats — you name it, if it needed
to go fast or quiet on the sea or in the
air, the David Taylor Research Lab
was involved. None of the industry
job offers were remotely comparable.”
Fifteen years at the lab augmented
Smith’s intelligence analysis work
with numerous odd-job assignments
writing design codes, deriving
physics models and supporting
experiments. In 1993 Smith completed
a master’s degree in mechanical
engineering with focus on distributed
optimization using intelligent
agents. He was then selected as
a founding member of the
Autonomic Ship Team to develop
automation concepts for reducing
manning on naval ships. The team
went beyond simple autonomy and
presented a vision of improved performance
through reduced manning
that influenced the requirements
for all modern ship acquisition
programs. Smith was hooked;
engineering disruptive change on
a large scale was very rewarding.
In the final five years of his government
service, Smith supported several
DARPA, ONR and NAVSEA
programs. “I was always asked to
lead a small team of bright people
far into the future — where none of
their risk-adverse development
managers dared go — develop a
vision, run a couple of feasibility
projects, and recommend options
for the next phases of development.
The advance team would usually
find a better way and point out a
disruptive new technology or
approach that would doom the current
development effort and embarrass
the program leadership. I got
used to being suddenly dismissed.”
In 1997 a leading consulting firm
took note of Smith’s odd career and
made him an offer he couldn’t
Feature
an oil refinery, which might cost $10,000
to stage.
Protection of borders or critical infrastructures
without limiting the flow of pedestrian
or vehicular traffic.
Providing covert surveillance and rapid
threat response capabilities for densely
populated public areas without infringing
on personal privacy.
Developing system-level solutions that
can adapt as fast as the threat, such as
detection of improvised explosive devices
or defense against cyber attacks.
Cultural, privacy, financial and ITAR issues need
to be addressed, as well as technology and cost.
The RIG’s Innovation Environment
The RIG creates solutions through innovative
integration of existing and proven
emerging technologies. We are also
Continued on page 18
refuse. Shortly after joining Syntek
Technologies, Inc., in 1987, he was
sent to Berlin to assist the German
startup, CargoLifter, GmbH, as they
attempted to create the world’s first
transcontinental heavy-lift airship.
Smith joined Raytheon in 2003 to
help develop advanced ground
segments for the rapidly growing
unmanned vehicle market. He is
now focusing on research and development
programs to improve the
“user experience” for IIS’s product
lines. He recently received the 2008
IIS Technology Innovator of the
Year award.
“True innovation requires a deep
understanding of human fears and
desires, deployment issues, and
financial reality,” Smith said. “Sexy
new component technologies and
clever system engineering are exciting,
but until the new product or
service is deployed and making a
difference in people’s daily lives it is
all just talk.”
RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY 2009 ISSUE 1 17