Kristal D. Long is a senior principal systems engineer at Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc., a BAE Systems company.
Kristal is an expert in providing reliable navigation and guidance solutions for various systems, including airborne systems, precision-guided munitions, handheld receivers, and embedded applications.
Her primary focus is on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) anti-jam technology, which minimizes the effects of adversaries attempting to deny or degrade GPS performance, which is essential to the U.S. military's effectiveness and the elimination of collateral damage.
Kristal is a leading anti-jam subject matter expert in Space Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) techniques.
She has demonstrated her signal processing aptitude through the AJ software designs she implements, and she co-authored and received a patent on Beamforming.
Kristal has significantly contributed to the development of the Strategic Anti-Jam Beamforming Receiver - Y-Code and Digital Integrated GPS Anti-jam Receiver (DIGAR) products, which support weapons and airborne applications.
Her STAP AJ design positions BAE Systems as the industry leader in military GPS AJ performance now and in the future.
Kristal collaborates with all engineering disciplines, including mechanical and electrical engineers specializing in the design of Field Programmable Gate Array integrated circuits.
She is a vital member of the DIGAR team. Her dedication was critical in completing the DIGAR-300V2 qualification, which included a mountain of documentation.
Kristal is currently leading software development for the NavStorm-M receiver, which incorporates BAE Systems Space Frequency Adaptive Processing (SFAP) AJ technique, as the business turns toward GPS M-Code capable receivers.
Kristal helped a failing program reverse course, providing one customer a product that meets their operational needs and sparking interest with other customers, increasing the sales for the business.
She has successfully developed engineers and is a mentor who understands that sharing her knowledge and helping others succeed empowers them to become leaders.
Her efforts in mentoring others have directly impacted the revenue and profitability of the business, evidenced by favorable program cost and schedule performance metrics.
Her willingness to share her knowledge with her co-workers has led to innovations by mentees that could have missed opportunities.
