The Submarine Technology Symposium (STS) is the premier clas- sified, non-attribution event of the year for the submarine community. STS is sponsored by the Naval Submarine League and hosted by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory at its Kossiakoff Conference Center in Laurel, MD. The 2018 event was the 30th annual symposium.
More than 600 people, a combination of military, government ci- vilians, academic and industry representatives were in attendance. The program consisted of two and one-half days of top-notch classified pre- sentations.
There were sixteen exhibits manned by experts from both govern- ment (program offices, operations, research and intelligence) and indus- try organizations. The sessions were challenging and informative. Many attendees were interested in talking with U.S. Naval Academy midship- men at their exhibit.
The Symposium was co-chaired by VADM Michael J. Connor, USN (Ret), and Lisa Blodgett, JHU/APL Sector Head. This year’s theme, De- signing the Undersea Force of the Future, was explored in five sessions over the course of the conference. The sessions were:
I. Next Generation Warfare from Under the Sea
II. Accelerating Design to Capability
III. Future of Strategic Deterrence (Nuclear and Conventional)
IV. Distributed and Cross-Domain Warfare Enablers
V. Anticipating and Disrupting Adversary Technology
In addition to these terrific presentations given by a cross-section of uniformed submarine officers and civilians, the symposium attend- ees were honored to hear from the Chief of Naval Operations, Admi- ral John Richardson; the Director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (NAVSEA 08), Admiral Frank Caldwell; the award-winning Congres- sional Research Service specialist in Naval Affairs and Defense Policy, Mr. Ronald O’Rourke; the Commander of the U.S. Submarine Forces, VADM Joseph Tofalo; the new Director of Strategic Systems Programs, VADM Johnny Wolfe, Jr,; the Former Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Robert Work; and the Deputy Commander, USSTRATCOM, VADM Chas Richard. A more notable and informative set of speakers on submarine matters could not be found elsewhere.
The presentations were interspersed by coffee and cookie breaks as well as luncheons each day, a banquet on the second day and no-host liq- uid refreshments following the afternoon sessions, all the above allow- ing for networking and collaboration. There were also opportunities for informal mingling with military and government customers (or potential customers) to ask questions or exchange ideas.
All in all, this Symposium is an opportunity that should not be passed up by anyone with a secret clearance and an interest in submarine technology.
