U.S. MARINES fighting the war in Afghanistan have embraced solar power as a way to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on batteries and generators at the front lines. The use of solar energy and renewable energy sources is part of a plan by the Corps to cut by half its reliance on non-renewable energy sources by 2025.

Email is the most attractive application for leading to implementation of a Defense Department enterprise-wide strategy. Email features are generic and functionally identical. It is shared across all components. It is mature. A shared directory of addresses and the security requirements are identical and do not require innovation. Implementing email as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) by an organization such as the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) would offer immediate cost reductions of at least 50 percent. This would serve as a precedent for similar enterprise-wide efforts that could follow.

The U.S. Marine Corps intelligence community is establishing a governance counsel of colonels who will make some of the acquisition decisions normally made at the general officer level, unburdening the service’s generals while also streamlining the process for getting intelligence technologies to the warfighters, reported Phillip Chudoba, Marine Corps assistant director of intelligence, speaking at TechNet Land Forces Southwest yesterday in Tuscon.

A solar cell no bigger than the dot over the letter “i” is setting new standards for efficiency and could significantly reduce the cost of solar-provided power in hot, dry regions, making solar energy more competitive with established, conventional sources of electricity, according to experts.

The U.S. Army is pushing to provide manageable amounts of three-dimensional terrain visualization imagery from its GeoGlobe database down to the individual soldier. The imagery soon will become available in PDF format so that it can be viewed on handheld devices to improve situational awareness, mission planning and decision making.

China’s navy has begun using unmanned aerial vehicles as part of its blue-water operations. At least one type has been photographed by foreign reconnaissance aircraft, and other variants have been reported. Not only has China been displaying an assortment of models at air shows, it also is incorporating advanced U.S. unmanned vehicle technology into current and future systems.

Technical advances in the field of virtual reality, also known as virtual worlds (VWs), are making it possible for the U.S Navy to tap into the collective expertise of its best submariners to design and build the next generation of attack submarines.

The U.S. Navy has released its updated draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Next-Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) that originally was scheduled for December 2011. According the Naval Enterprise Networks program management office (PMW 205), industry has 10 working days from the date of the announcement (March 16, 2012) to submit comments or questions regarding the RFP to the program office.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) wrapped up its annual review earlier this month, during which the organization's program managers had a chance to showcase their work to authorities from defense, government, academia and the general public. Already personnel have identified areas where research will adjust to meet identified needs with more detailed plans expected soon.

Less than one month after Brandon Oldenburg and Lampton Enochs of Moonbot Studios addressed the ArkLaTex Chapter of AFCEA and became members of the association, the company took home an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.