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The “Middle East Missile and Air Defense Symposium” MEMAD proceeded its activities for the second day at the Armed Forces Officers Club, Abu Dhabi. The conference was organized by the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis – INEGMA.

First session:
Lieutenant General (ret) Paul Mikolashek, Former Inspector General in the U.S. Army and Vice President of Middle East and North Africa Development at Raytheon Network Centric Systems chaired the first session that featured three speakers: Colonel (Eng) Gian Luigi Marinoni, Chief of Space Programs, Missile Defense and C41 at the General Secretariat of Defense in Italy, examined “Extended Mid-Tier Defense”. Colonel Marinoni explained Italy’s participation in the NATO European Missile Defense Program specifically concentrating on IAMD in “Plug and Fight” scenarios as well as sea-based missile defense future capabilities.

Colonel Fabian Ochsner, Chief, Ground-Based Air defense, Air Operations Center in the Swiss Air Force gave a presentation about “Inner tier Air Defense for all Missions – The Swiss solution”, in which he explained the military operations other than war (MOOYW) stating: “MOOTW focus on deterring war, resolving conflict, promoting peace, and supporting civil authorities in response to domestic crisis. MOOTW may involve elements of both combat and noncombat operations in peacetime, conflict and war situations.”

Captain Willian Johnson, U.S. Navy Chief of Staff, U.S. Joint functional component command for integrated missile defense, lectured about “Executing operational synchronization for joint missile defense”. In his presentation, Captain Johnson argued: “Global operations present a number of challenges for the missile defense community, which includes the command and control of operations simultaneously occurring in multiple regions, operational control of capabilities and supported and supporting relationships.” He added: “Allies are a critical component of the global architecture.”

Workshops:
The First plenary session of the conference ended with two specialized closed workshops. The first workshop treated: “Layered Integrated Air & Missile Defense.”

The second workshop treated: “The Global, Regional and Theater Architecture.”

Second session:
The second session chaired by Dr. Theodore Karasik, Director for Research and Consultancy, INEGMA, featured three speakers. Mr. Mike Bieri, Director of Integration, Program Executive Office, Missiles and Space at the United States of America briefed about “U.S. Army tactical and air defense missile programs overview”. He described the mission of being a trusted worldwide provider of missile systems broken into various categories based on contingencies. He also argued on how valuable the Patriot system is through extensive modernization programs for now and in the future.

Colonel Ahmed Al Shehhi, Chief of Air Force Strategic Analysis Center in the UAE and Acting Co-Director at the UAE/U.S. integrated air and missile defense center in Abu Dhabi and Colonel Michael Tronolone, Acting Co-Director at the UAE/U.S. Integrated Air and Missile Defense Center in Abu Dhabi, both gave an overview on “The Integrated Air and Missile Defense Center – Updates and Lessons Learned. They explained the objectives of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Center, which includes developing long term partners and relationships, utilize bilateral and multilateral academic seminars, symposiums and exercises, and improve partnership capacity and promote regional security and stability. They added: “The regional air and missile threat is real, and therefore, must be taken seriously.”

Finally, Mr. Frank Rose, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for space and defense policy at the United States of America gave a lecture about “The U.S. State department perspective on the phased adaptive approach to missile defense.” Rose argued: “Missile defense plays an important role in the broader U.S. international security strategy, supporting both deterrence and diplomacy. Missile defense assures our allies and partners that the United States has the will and the means to deter and, if necessary, defeat a limited ballistic missile attack against the U.S. homeland, our forward deployed troops, allies, and partners.” He added: “Missile defense also may help constrain regional actors from trying to inhibit or disrupt the U.S. ability to come to the defense or assistance of its allies and partners.”

MEMAD sponsors were as follows: Platinum Sponsors: Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Gold sponsors: Rheinmetall and MBDA. Silver sponsors: Boeing, Booz/Allen/Hamilton and Selex.

The conference concluded with enormous success.