In March, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) delivered to the House Armed Services Committee a report on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These ERPs would be replacing legacy systems costing $890 million per year. Replacing such systems would take anywhere from seven to 14 years. However, when the ERPs finally are installed, they would cost up to $207,561 per user and have a payback time frame as high as 168 years.

U.S. military land forces increasingly rely on networks, data and a secure cyberspace to accomplish virtually every mission, including combat, humanitarian and peacetime duties. That reliance, however, comes with a wide array of challenges, changes and adjustments as forces continually transition to the next new technology. Military and industry experts gathered at the TechNet Land Forces conference in Tucson, Arizona, in late March to search for solutions that make the transitions smoother.

The military network that broke new ground serving U.S. units in Iraq also generated lessons in how to take down a network at the end of operations. For some U.S. Army network experts, those lessons include how not to transition a network during a theater exit.

In a few months, the U.S. Coast Guard will complete its evaluation of an underwater 3-D imaging system that will then be transferred from the service’s Research and Development Center to operators. But even as the technology is being assessed, the system is deploying to hot spots around the world, most recently in the search for bodies following the late February crash of a Coast Guard helicopter off the coast of Alabama.

Light filtering technology developed with funding from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research may one day allow warfighters to see more clearly through clouds, dust or other obscurants. The technology could lead to a circular polarization camera capable of improving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technologies that would boost situational awareness on the battlefield or for homeland defense. It also could aid cancer detection and even enhance 3-D movies.

Today’s approach to the issue of cybersecurity is totally wrong. For years, experts have been propounding similar solutions to the problem of securing the virtual realm. Yet, that realm is less safe today than it was when the first calls for improved security achieved urgent status. The changes that define cyberspace—and what cyberspace in turn has wrought on society—cry out for a new approach rather than add-on measures to the same strategies that continue to prove unsuccessful over the long term.

The U.S. Army is making good on the mantra "train as you fight" by connecting units in garrison with the same mission command systems they use during deployments. Breaking through the bureaucracy inherent in putting these tactical technologies on a strategic network means that soldiers will be better prepared for their work in theater.

The U.S. Defense Department is continually improving one of its major intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection and distribution systems to improve interoperability among the military services and coalition allies and to make the information more readily available, increasing situational awareness on the battlefield.

The information technology revolution that has defined the globalization of society may pale in comparison to its successor in the coming years. New capabilities that build on existing systems will vie with emerging laboratory advances to present military forces with myriad opportunities and challenges.

The threat to the United States and its allies is greater than ever as destructive weapons become available to more hostile militaries as well as to smaller groups such as terrorists. These weapons can be kinetic or digital, as cyberspace offers the potential for a devastating attack on both the military and the homeland itself. Defending against these security challenges will require cooperation among many defense, civil government, industry, academia and nongovernmental organizations.