Founders Mr. Joseph Famme and Mr. Ted Raitch
Working together for 27 years with an occasional handshake, serving our customers with trust and respect
Joe Mr. Famme serves as President. He holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Management from San Diego State University and a Masters Degree from the Naval War College, Newport, RI. Mr. Famme served in the US Navy as a surface warfare officer in seven ships over twenty-three years. Naval service included two LST’s, an Electric Drive DE, Pre-Com USS Josephus Daniels (CG-27) and Operations Officer USS Southerland (DD-743) . LT Famme then served as the Operations instructor for the Prospective Commanding Officer Course at the USN Destroyer School ('69 - '72). 1972-4 he served as Executive Officer of USS Joseph Hewes FF-1078, deploying to Vietnam in '72 and the Arab-Israeli War '73. Following the War LCDR Famme coordinated the first operational testing of the prototype SQR-18 Towed Array Sonar system in Eastern Mediterranean; proved highly successful and resulted in major changes ASW. LCDR Famme attended the Naval War College 74 - '75 where one of two thesis papers was, "Active and Passive Sonar: It is Not a Zero Sum Game," showed the Navy required the best of both capabilities to win. He then served as Aide to the President, NWC, '75-'76 and was promoted to Commander. CDR Famme served as the Fleet ASW Readiness Officer for Commander Surface Forces Pacific, followed ’77 by Command of USS Cook FF-1083 where he was able obtain and install new ASW passive wide-band elements for the ship's SQS-26 sonar that proved their importance by detecting previously undiscovered underwater communications between Soviet "research" vessels and submarines off the California coast. CDR Famme was assigned ’80 as Director of Tactical Training, Fleet ASW Training Center Pacific where staff taught ship and coordinated ASW tactics including passive Target Motion Analysis techniques previously used by US submarines. CDR Famme was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his role in the design of the new Device 14A12 ASW Team Tactical Trainer, one of the Navy's first distributed microprocessor based training systems, based on previous development of an ASW part-task / team trainer for the SQR-18 Towed Array Sonar using COTS computers. Mr. Famme has authored numerous technical papers [Technical Papers Tab] describing naval control systems, applications of physics for verification and validation of automated control systems and related reduced crew manning; also electronic data exchange between Physics design modeling CAD design tools. These projects lead to the creation of the U.S. Navy's first "total ship model’s ship's Hull, Mechanical and Electrical (HM&E) systems with a CG-47 Class Combat Systems and ANZAK frigate model for V&V and training.
The need for additional professional services in support of other US and international customers lead to the formation of ITE Inc. in 1996. In Department of Defense Command and Control, since 1999, ITE has provided an important service for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) where ITE conducts, through the AFCEA Education Foundation, a Professional Development Course series, a twice annual five-day professional course covering the US Joint Global Command and Control System (GCCS-J). In support of Homeland Defense, Mr. Famme also serves on the Board of Advisors to the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue. Mr. Famme holds a Commercial Pilots License (IFR - Instrument Flight Rules). |
Mr. Raitch serves as Vice President for Business Development. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with a degree in Economics. Mr. Raitch spent five years in the US Air Force as a aircraft electronics maintenance technician followed by two years working at the USCG Shipyard, Curtis Bay, MD. Mr. Raitch’ business career began with commercial sales with companies such as NCR, followed by joining the Link Div. of the Singer Corporation in 1982 for business development & sales. He successfully led technology teams selling full scale nuclear and fossil power plant simulators in international markets and then transitioned to defense electronics where he led projects to develop ship, air and submarine simulators, and naval & army tactical simulators. Mr. Raitch was instrumental in developing the Asian markets for advanced control automation systems including the navy standard monitoring control system (SMCS) where he developed initial sales in Korea in the early 90s as a precursor to SMCS being selected for the US Navy Smart Ship program. During this same period, as an adjunct to the SMCS initiatives. Mr. Raitch was also responsible for the installation and tests of the OSL prototype ECDIS aboard the U.S. Navy research surface effect ship, SES-200, at Patuxent, MD. This OSL Prototype was equipped with the novel ability to inject radar overlays on the ECDIS display of uncharted objects and features as well other boats and vessels. Following several months of installation and preliminary trials, Mr. Raitch arranged for U.S. Navy and DARPA directors to “ride” SES-200 for high speed runs out of Annapolis, MD, on the Chesapeake Bay to demonstrate the effectiveness of ECDIS with radar overlay. Upon completion of these demonstrations the business development effort was continued by OSL. In 1994, the acceptance of SMCS for the US Navy Smart Ship then initiated international sales of SMCS to some 12 international navies world-wide including Korea. Mr. Raitch demonstrated his abilities as a program manager with his on-site program management of sea trials for the new electro optical fire control systems on the Taiwan Navy’s Off Shore Patrol Vessels in the late 90’s
In parallel with these efforts Mr. Raitch initiated a program to support Naval Ship Systems Engineering Station (NAVSSES) Philadelphia with dual use High Pressure Air Compressor (HPAC) & Air Conditioning (AC) plant simulators to be used as a “de facto” hot plant for testing the USN’s Integrated Condition Assessment System (ICAS) for equipment condition based maintenance (CBM) research at NAVSSES, as well as a simulation model for embedded operator and maintenance training.
Working with major shipyards like Avondale, Ingalls, BIW and Newport News Mr. Raitch initiated advanced use of realtime physics modeling tools for dynamic Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) of submarine and ship Hull Mechanical & Electrical (HM&E) systems during ship design. This effort lead to the development of integrated CAD – Physics design tools via the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) Integrated Shipbuilding Environment (ISE) program with demonstrations of Simsmart physics integrated with 2D and 3D CAD products of CATIA, AutoCAD Ship Constructor & Intergraph.
Mr. Raitch is also instrumental in maintaining international markets for the sale of commercial design tools used for physics modeling, design analysis and ship damage survivability. He has also co-authored a technical paper describing the applications of physics based simulation of HM&E and crew systems for verification and validation of automated control systems. Please see the Technical Papers Tab on this website.
As the ITE lead for business development in NE Asia (Korea, Japan and Taiwan) Mr. Raitch developed a joint US – Japanese test program to introduce Human Fatigue & Stress Detection technology based upon voice analysis now in testing at US Army and Navy labs in the US. He is currently introducing advance digital navigation & C2 systems technologies into these NE Asian markets. |
Rev 7/20/10