Ivan Rosenberg

National Online Forum webinar on 8-9:00am pacific Wednesday, February 24, 2021

This 1-hour webinar will have presentations followed by Q&A

1. Trends and Technologies fueling the convergence
2. Making it happen – engineering, testing and regulatory considerations
3. Preparing the industry through associations – An introduction to efforts at the SAE
4. Investment trends, opportunities for aerospace industry and automotive industry as the space evolves
5. Open Q&A

Please join us at 8:00-9:00am pacific time on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 when Ravindra Kondagunta (CEO, Traction Labs LLC), Mark Van Horck (Principal, MvH Development), and Michael McNair (Vice President – Aerospace, SAE Industry Technologies Consortia) will discuss these and other issues regarding vertical transport.

The meeting is free for members and $25 for non-members.  For more information and to register to attend the meeting go to https://adfnoffeb21.eventbrite.com.

Information about joining The A&D Forum is at https://aerospacedefenseforum.org.

The webinar is sponsored by Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP.

National Online Forum webinar on 8-9:00am pacific Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Over the last decade and especially in the last few years, a number of global trends have forced the US Air and Space Forces to rethink the way that we research, develop and acquire new technologies and systems. These three trends include:

1. The share of Global R&D from the US and from the US DoD has decreased from ~36% in 1960 to ~3% in 2020. In response, we must find ways to use our defense budget to leverage the technological gains made outside the DoD.
2. The defense industrial base has been consolidating and shrinking at all levels (Large Primes and Small and Medium Enterprises), providing less of an impetus for competition and innovation. We must consider how to build the 21st century industrial base for defense rather than the 21st century defense industrial base. What this means in practice is that we must develop ways to work with companies whose primary customer is not the DoD.
3. The rise of China and other adversaries have created a new battlefield of ‘technological influence’ where large commercial technology companies can have significant national security effects (i.e. Huawei and DJI). This leads to the question of how can the US encourage and catalyze the growth of technology companies from the US and our allied countries.

In response to these three trends, the Department of The Air Force (DAF), which includes the US Air Force and the US Space Force has set up AFWERX with the mission of leveraging commercial technologies and private R&D funding to deliver solutions to increase national security. You can learn more about AFWERX here: https://www.afwerx.af.mil/

One of the key programs of AFWERX is AFVentures, which is a new way of bringing companies to work with the DAF. The program leverages the Small Business Innovation Research funding to lower barriers to entry for working with the DAF and increase the opportunities to scale for successful products and programs. In order to do this, AFVentures employs an investment strategy of ‘Many Small Bets, and Scale the Winners’. What this means in practice is a three stage program: Feasibility, Prototype, and Scale.

Please join us on Wednesday, January 20, 2021 when Major Steve Lauver, Co-Founder and AFVentures Deputy Division Chief, AFWERX, will talk about how to begin working with the DAF in as little as 60 days.

The meeting is free for members and $25 for non-members For more information and to register to attend the meeting go to https://adfnofjan2020.eventbrite.com.

Information about joining The A&D Forum is at https://aerospacedefenseforum.org.

National Online Forum webinar on 8-9:00am pacific Wednesday, January 13, 2021

We have entered a new era of great power competition and U.S. A&D businesses must answer a key, existential strategic question that is just as big as sustainability and climate change: should they be involved in China and if so, why, how, and at what risk? This question will not be answered right away – we are only at the beginning of the inquiry; one that will face our industry for a long time. By the end of this decade, the answer could mean everything, as illustrated by the questions that we will suggest be addressed.

Please join us on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 8:00-9:00AM pacific time, when our panelists will raise and uncover some of the questions and topics US A&D companies need to consider when evaluating whether and how to do business with, in, or in competition with China. We’re not going to try and answer them all – there’s way too many and some may be the focus of future webinars. However, we’ll try to describe the lay of the land and identify some of the key issues that you should start thinking about.

The presentations will start with the big picture with Captain (Ret.) Scott Tait (Executive Director, SD Catalyst, and formerly a strategic pol-mil planner on the Joint Staff) discussing the strategic landscape; then Michael Bruno (Senior Business Editor, Aviation Week Network, who has written extensively on the US-China question for A&D companies), will talk about the general business framework, and finally David Conrad (Director Business Development, PTI Technologies, who formerly worked in China and has extensive, practical experience “on the ground”) will address some of the specifics within the aerospace industry.

Included in the questions and topics needed to be addressed, some of which we will discuss, are:
• What do you need to know to have a comprehensive view of China before you get involved?
• What is the US-China competition now, where it is going and what does that mean to US businesses?
• What are the geopolitical considerations and long-term risks that you’re may face as an industry from our national government?
• Is there business for you to have with China? Do they really need your help? Why do you want to be in China? What’s there for you?
• Is there really the business you think there is, or is China moving to become independent and make their own planes? What are the big three China airlines going to do when the C919 comes along? Are they going to take that in preference to an A320 family or the 737Max? Would you be building a new competitor in Comac?
• Do you try to make money with China or do you avoid the market all together?
• If you want to get involved with China, how do you go about doing that? Because for many Western companies China is a total foreign territory, what are all the things you got to understand and realize to do business there?
• How do you make money with China? Who’s going to buy?
• Do you need to set up a local factory and if so how do you do this?
• Do you need to set up a new office and if so, how do you do this?
• How do you deal with issues like cyber protection, IP threats, and WTO disputes?
• China and the West will highly likely form two different economic blocks, increasingly divided by lack of interoperability. How do you deal with standards and interoperability and all those other lower-level things that build to a system?
• What are Airbus and Europe doing regarding China?
• How can you anticipate, plan for, detect, and deal with a failing China?
• With a Biden Presidency, how will things be different and the same as the past?
• What is a hybrid war, do we have this now, what is the status and what could be the future?
• What does China’s End Game, winning, look like to them? What does winning look like to you?

The meeting is free for members and $25 for non-members. For more information and to register to attend the meeting go to https://adfnofjan1320.eventbrite.com.

Information about joining The A&D Forum is at https://aerospacedefenseforum.org.

This webinar is sponsored by Bolton & Company.

National Online Forum event on Thursday, December 17, 2020

The year 2020 has been especially challenging for A&D. The 737Max grounding and COVID-19 pandemic have created disruptions within the A&D industry unlike any other year. Many have experienced hardships and unexpected transitions. At the same time there have been positive events within private industry. For example, the restart of America’s human launch capability to the ISS after 11 years.

During this past year, the A&D Forum has experienced its own challenges. We transitioned from in-person meetings to events based on Zoom. With that transition, we lost the pre- and post-meeting networking time that we all appreciate. That networking has been a foundational element of the A&D Forum since its inception. In an attempt to re-establish the in-person networking experience we are hosting the A&D Forum’s First Ever Holiday Networking Event on Thursday, December 17, 4:00–5:30pm pacific time

No speaker, just networking in small groups. And to keep it interesting, we’ll do multiple group sessions with Zoom mixing up the groups randomly. Obviously, we still can’t meet in person and no one really knows when we’ll be able to do so, but by using Zoom breakout rooms we can recapture the ability to connect with our colleagues.

Each small group session will last 15 minutes and contain no more than 4 people. We would also like the discussion to be something that lifts people’s spirits since this has been such a challenging year. Please pick one of the following discussion questions for the sessions you’ll be in:
• What good thing happened to me this year that I’m grateful for?
• Is there anything different you did this year that you never would have considered doing before?
• What was the most significant thing you learned this past year?

PLEASE NOTE: this will be an afternoon event, so feel free to bring your favorite “adult beverage” if you so desire, but no smoking please. Our plan is to have up to 3 or 4 small group networking sessions.

This event is open to both members and non-members, no recording, no cost to non-members and we’ll share your contact information if you allow us to do so.

The meeting is free for all. For more information and to register to attend the meeting go to https://adfnofdec20HolidayEvent.eventbrite.com.

Information about joining The A&D Forum is at https://aerospacedefenseforum.org.

We look forward to seeing you on December 17!

National Online Forum meeting on December 10, 2020

Please join us on Thursday, December 10, 8:00–9:00am pacific time, when Jeff Korzenik, Chief Investment Strategist, Fifth Third Bank, will share his thoughts and economic assessment for COVID and beyond:
• Current state of the U.S. economy: differences and similarities with past downturns
• The impact of monetary and fiscal intervention
• Health risks and unintended consequences
• The impact (or, non-impact) of the election
• The post pandemic economy: disrupted industries, disrupted geographies, and other trends.

The meeting is free for members and $25 for non-members For more information and to register to attend the meeting go to https://adfnofdec20.eventbrite.com.

Information about joining The A&D Forum is at https://aerospacedefenseforum.org.

This webinar is sponsored by Moss Adams.