October 4, 2004
A review of past DoD C4ISR constructs and their problems, leading to the current move to become Net-Centric. A brief historical perspective, and a description of what is needed to become Net-Centric.
Mr. John P. Stenbit served as Assistant Secretary of Defense (C3I), Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence and Chief Information Officer for the Department of Defense for the last four years. His career spanned over 30 years of public and private sector service in the telecommunications and the command and control fields. His public service included four years at the Department of Defense from 1973 to 1977, serving for two years as principal deputy director of telecommunications and command and control systems, and two years as staff specialist for Worldwide Command and Control Systems in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Stenbit previously was an executive vice president of TRW, retiring in May 2001. He joined TRW in 1968, and was responsible for the planning and analysis of advanced satellite surveillance systems. Prior to joining TRW, he held a position with the Aerospace Corporation involving command and control systems for missiles and satellites, and satellite data compression and pattern recognition. During this time, he was a Fulbright Fellow and Aerospace Corporation Fellow at the Technische Hogeschool, Einhoven, Netherlands, concentrating on coding theory and data compression. He has chaired the Science and Technology Advisory Panel to the Director of Central Intelligence, and served as member of the Science Advisory Group to the directors of Naval Intelligence and the Defense Communications Agency. He also chaired the Research, Engineering and Development Advisory Committee for the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. He has served on the Defense Science Advisory Board, the Navy Studies Board, and the National Research Council Manufacturing Board. In 1999, Mr. Stenbit was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. Mr. Stenbit holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.