AFCEANs receive deep discounts from Microsoft, Dell and HP as well as are eligible to join the Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed), which offers member benefits of its own plus highly competitive interest rates on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

The Homeland Security Directory includes information about companies that design and develop technologies such as sensors, vulnerability assessments or information security solutions.

SIGNAL Online now features a section dedicated to sharing white papers and other instructional and research materials.

Shop!AFCEA has opened its e-doors, and members can purchase hats, jackets and shirts that include the official AFCEA logo.

I am just back from the DoDIIS Conference in Denver where the message was moving military intelligence, if not the entire national Intelligence Community (IC), to an Information Technology (IT) Enterprise (ITE; aka "the cloud") is a mission imperative. I will return to DoDIIS, but first I want to comment on the book "INTEL WARS: The Secret History of the Fight Against Terror" by Matthew Aid and share some thoughts on the current situation in Afghanistan.

Tethered aerostats with Persistent Threat Detection Systems that fly over separate forward operating bases in Afghanistan received capability upgrades recently with the addition of new Kestrels. Unlike the former versions, the revamped technology includes electro-optical/infrared features, enabling users to have a 360-degree view of targets in a city-size area after sundown and during the day.

Innovation ruled the third and final day of the TechNet Land Forces conference in Tucson, Arizona, with military and industry experts discussing a wide range of ways warfighters use technology to improve operational effectiveness--even if the operation is a simple search for candy.

Securing the homeland will require closer cooperation among military and civilian government organizations as diverse threats adopt each others' tactics and techniques. Terrorists, smugglers and other organized crime entities have learned from each other and, in some cases, are joining forces to threaten Western democracies in new ways. Testifying before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Michael A. Sheehan, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, described a menacing trend in which "terrorism, drug trafficking and other types of transnational organized crime are increasingly intertwined."

Military leaders gathered yesterday at the TechNet Land Forces conference in Tucson, Arizona, for a blunt discussion of technology challenges facing current and future forces.

The defense budget cuts proposed for the foreseeable future offer the potential for both weakening the military and triggering a renaissance in innovation. And, that is just for the current reductions in the budget; if further draconian cuts are imposed, then no amount of innovation will make up for what some experts describe as a devastating evisceration of U.S. defense capabilities.