It really is frustrating. For years, the U.S. government—and others—consistently have failed to treat information and communications as either a critical infrastructure or as an essential service in Afghanistan. However, in the past few months, innovative people have been making some important progress. AFCEANs can help a lot—starting with reviving the Afghanistan Chapter.

U.S. sailors are protecting the ocean blue as they ride the waves, but they also are thinking green. The Navy is making great strides as caretaker of the waters and the air it requires for its operations while never forgetting that its primary mission is to win wars. The establishment of a Green Strike Group, a unit of powerful ships and assets that will operate at least part of the time on biofuels, reconciles the need for a healthier Earth along with the needs of enhanced security and mission effectiveness. The alternative fuel sources that the Green Strike Group will use meet specific criteria that save energy and benefit the American people.

New fiber optic technology is allowing warfighters to place antennas far away from their radio systems. This capability can both provide greater protection from attack and increase radio signal range.

The U.S. Army is launching a new acquisition review aimed at a complete overhaul of organization, policies, work force and processes. Instead of focusing on individual characteristics of acquisition processes, this review is examining the full range of acquisition activities from rapid deployment to the warfighter to congressional rules and regulations. It will tap expertise from across the spectrum of the government and military acquisition professionals.

Hydrogen-powered cars may be the rage in the commercial sector, but the U.S. military is employing the first element of the periodic table to provide energy beyond transportation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is powering stateside installations as well as bases in forward operating locations with fuel cells—electrochemical cells that convert fuel sources into electric currents. The efforts result in money savings, a reduction of the dependence on foreign oil, essentially unlimited power generation and a cleaner environment.

Developers are testing the many pieces that plug into the U.S. Army’s communications networks during the military branch’s annual system-of-systems event. The four-month exercise gives leaders a look at the network of the future. It also offers developers the opportunity to study many of soldiers’ critical assets in an operational venue, enabling experimentation outside of a laboratory. Understanding the real-world interoperability capabilities through these evaluations will help the Army ensure that predictions on paper become reality in the field.

The U.S. Defense Department’s point program for tactical electric power is introducing a new generation of power generators that will reduce the fleet average fuel consumption more than 20 percent. The Advanced Medium Mobile Power Sources generators—the handiwork of the U.S. Army’s Project Manager–Mobile Electric Power—is scheduled to enter production early next year and, once fully fielded, will save the Army more than 50 million gallons of fuel annually.

Coalition forces are on the threshold of attaining one goal they have sought to achieve for nearly a decade: persistent agility and perseverance. The stunning terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, is one in a list of terrorist assaults that occurred prior to that unprovoked assault and unfortunately persist. But it was that horrific event in September 2001 that solidified a multinational determination to fight a tenacious conglomerate of adversaries. Despite this focused objective, however, the challenges to collaborate are not as much about a lack of single-mindedness but rather the natural ungainliness that emerges when countries take on en masse combat.

The push for alternatives to crude-oil-based fuels is as much about greenbacks as it is about greenhouse gases. So for the U.S. military, which spends $20 billion on fuel annually, the benefit of finding viable biofuels can mean saving big bucks. But creating feasible substitutes for good old diesel is only the beginning of the workload for the U.S. Marine Corps. Not only does the service have to determine if swapping feedstock for traditional fuel is cost effective but it also must clarify the impact that doing so would have up and down the logistics road.

Scientists are developing methods to turn green algae into black gold. A research consortium consisting of two national laboratories, universities and private industry is studying a variety of technologies and processes to convert the humble one-celled organism into the chemical building blocks for biofuels and plastics.