ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS HOLDS A2PATS USER GROUP MEETING
On July 19, Textron Systems’ Electronic Systems team held an A2PATS® user group meeting at their Hunt Valley, Maryland, offices. This annual event had been put on hold for the past two years, and the team was happy to hold the meeting once again in person and gather with users from across the world. “We’re pleased to welcome back our customers and to bring in our new customers. We love being able to interact with them and are proud of what we were able to accomplish during the conference,” said Mike Paturzo, Vice President of Global Sales and Strategy for Electronic Systems. “The biggest benefit is that we’re able to have that face time with our customers to talk through what they’re using the system for and the challenges we can help solve.”
The user group is the largest annual customer meeting for A2PATS users. Topics ranged from the latest upgrades to the system, future enhancements, and how to use and maintain the system. Additionally, participants were able to see demos and attend training sessions. The A2PATS system, or Advanced Architecture Phase Amplitude and Time Simulator, is an electromagnetic environment generator used to simulate radar, communications, and electro-optical/infrared sensor suites in a laboratory environment. The simulator continues to be vital to aviation and electronic warfare communities across the world.
An open-forum question and answer session closed out the meeting, where the presenters could hear directly from their customers. A direct result of past feedback, and new to A2PATS this year, is the spinning antennae, which was incorporated due to customer interest. As Paturzo explained, “Meeting with our customers gives us the opportunity to get their opinions on what should be next for the product and what features will help improve their experience. It lets us know how we can serve them better by investing in capabilities. It’s exciting to see where the system can go next from here and how we can continuously improve to meet our customers' needs.”