The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division and the U.S. Joint Forces Command are conducting the sixth annual live joint and coalition intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) interoperability demonstration through July at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.

Sponsored by the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD/I), Empire Challenge 09 (EC09) will demonstrate and test capabilities that provide timely and actionable intelligence data to the warfighter.

EC09 will be held at China Lake with distributed locations in the Joint Intelligence Lab in Suffolk, Va., the Combined Air Operations Center-Experimental at Langley Air Force Base, Hampton, Va., Service Distributed Common Ground/Surface System labs around the country, coalition sites in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency in the Netherlands.

EC09 participants include the combat support agencies, services, coalition partners, academia and industry. The event will focus on providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support to warfighters at the combined task force (CTF)-level and below. EC09 will include live operations augmented by virtual and constructive modeling & simulation capabilities. Aircraft expected to participate include: U-2, GLOBAL HAWK, Predator surrogate (test platform), RC-135, Sea King Mk7 (UK), Scan Eagle UAS, F-16CJ, F-18E/F/G and others

News media who visit China Lake on July 21 will be able to interview key EC09 personnel and subject matter experts and view demonstration equipment. The media event will begin at 6:30 a.m. and conclude at noon.

Interested media should contact Renee Hatcher in the NAWCWD Public Affairs office at 760-939-0961 or via e-mail at [email protected] for more details and to RSVP by July15.