Roger Davis has for more than thirty-five years actively engaged in Department of Defense-wide and intergovernmental agency working groups to further the disciplines associated with signature measurements, including radar, infrared, multi- and hyper-spectral, and to limited extent other domains (UV, seismic, acoustic, magnetic). From its inception in 1994, he served 18 years as the Secretary of the Range Commanders Council Signature Measurements Standards Group. He was an inaugural awardee of the RCC Distinguished Service Award in 2010.
Roger participated in the establishment of the National Radar Cross Section Measurement Facilities Certification Program and has served as the Program Facilitator since the program was formally established in 2000. The certification program seeks to raise the quality bar across a wide range of measurement facilities that span DoD, industry, and academia. He coordinates and facilitates annual Radar Cross Section Technical Exchange Meetings (RCS TEMs), which provide a secure forum for engagement by and between professionals engaged in RCS measurements. He has served as the Executive Committee Secretary since the committee was established in 2011.
In 2003, Roger provided early support to the just-established Science and Technology Directorate within the Department of Homeland Security, assisting in the launch of the Counter-MANPADS Program. He supported the DHS S&T Energetics Division until 2007 during which time two different systems were developed to provide onboard protection for commercial aircraft. He participated in the drafting and publication of a Report to Congress on the status of the program.
His close association with the radar signature measurements community brought him into the debate surrounding the interaction of radar and wind turbines when, in 2007, one of the facilities certified under the program that he facilitates became the subject of a planning and zoning dispute in California. Since then, he has worked with federal, state, and local organizations to understand better the interactions between these two important, often unseen resources that support our energy, transportation, and safety needs.
In 2017, Roger served on and was the principal author of the final report for a Peer Review Panel for the Electromagnetics and Sensors Branch in the Intelligent Flight Systems Directorate at NASA Langley.
Roger provides direct support to the Aircraft Signature and Avionics Measurements Branch of the Range Instrumentation Division at the Atlantic Test Range. His support activities include technical and management advisory services on a variety of projects and programs associated with air vehicle flight test, instrumentation systems investments and development, capabilities assessments, performance metrics, and inter-range collaboration on technical issues and investment prioritization. He initiates and nurtures various science and technology efforts to further the capabilities of the Navy and partner services to conduct and analyze radar and multi-spectral signature measurements and photogrammetry.
Roger serves as a subject matter expert advising the Test and Evaluation Science and Technology (T&E/S&T) Program's Advanced Instrumentation Systems Test (AIST) Executing Agent on the veracity of a wide range of real and imagined instrumentation technologies that may be brought to bear on the many challenges facing the DoD T&E communities of interest. He also provides or has provided liaison support for the Cyberspace Test Technology Executing Agent, DoD transition partners, and project performers that include the Pennsylvania State University Advanced Research Laboratory, Morgan State University, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, and the Marine Meteorology Division of the Naval Research Lab.
He has held corporate-level positions in several small business associated with the Aerospace & Defense communities, serving as a vice president at two companies and as chief operating officer at another. Roger currently advises a small business that has developed and flown a unique optionally-manned quiet surveillance aircraft.
Roger holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland. Prior to earning his degree, he served three years in the U.S. Army providing intermediate-level maintenance of air defense radars and missile launch systems, achieving the rank of E-5/Specialist 5 in just 27 months.
Current/Past Professional Affiliations: Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (Past President of Southern Maryland Chapter); Range Commanders Council Signature Measurements Standards Group (Past Secretary) and current Member Representative to the Optical Sciences Group for the Naval Air Systems Command; Electronic Warfare and Information Operations Association/AOC, Plank Owner and Past Chapter Director; current member of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association, and Associate Member of the American Meteorological Society.
Roger resides in Southern Maryland with his wife Bonnie. They have four adult children (two each) from prior marriages, and Roger has two adult grandchildren. Roger and Bonnie enjoy hiking and sailing their 38-foot sloop Tail Wind on the Chesapeake Bay.
January 2024