If you're like me, after the activity from this fall, you need a few days away from the usually grind to refocus your planning. I did this in August and it was amazingly refreshing. (Actually, I need a six month sabbatical but that will have to wait!) Over the holidays (or in January) is a great time to relax and consider your business development activities since Labor Day.

Members of the U.S. Joint Forces Command’s Joint Enabling Capabilities (JEC) Command arrived home from Afghanistan and the first major operational use of the Ready JEC Package (RJP) just in time to join their families for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The news earlier this year that the U.S. Marine Corps was banning social media sent some people into a near tizzy. How could it do such a thing? Aside from the fact that it was not what Marine Corps officials actually said—for security reasons they prohibited Marines from using applications such as Facebook and Twitter on Marine Corps computer networks—the move by the Marine Corps, and the uproar surrounding it, spurred the Pentagon to examine its policies surrounding these collaborative tools and to assess how they are treated.

Periodically, we ask the senior leadership of the global security community to give us feedback on their top priorities in the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence and information technology domains. In the past couple of years, they have been fairly consistent in saying that their top priority is interagency and coalition information sharing.

The U.S. Navy is designing its newest intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting system to fit advanced information systems that already have begun to take shape ashore and afloat. The first increment is receiving its shipboard introduction as a major milestone nears this spring.

The U.S. Navy is transitioning from network-centric to info-centric as it adjusts for the changing missions of the 21st century. The shift represents less a technology change than an organizational and operational one as the sea service faces more diverse missions with fewer assets.

U.S. Army researchers are taking the extended view as they plan near- and long-term intelligence and surveillance systems. New sensor suites are being designed to serve future requirements involving advanced data fusion and new approaches to situational awareness.

The U.S. Navy is rolling out its first new maritime patrol reconnaissance aircraft in four decades, pushing mission technologies into the future. Upgrading the capabilities of the platform’s predecessor makes it better suited for today’s battle environment. Improvements include the ability to process more data, fly higher and longer and cover a larger area. The aircraft’s main purpose will be antisubmarine warfare, but it will be inherently flexible. In addition, the open systems architecture will make onboard adjustments easier and less expensive for the Navy and its partners while commercial production practices will reduce costs. Foreign nations and U.S. allies also are purchasing the aircraft and will provide input to the development process.

Seeing in the dark is a mere basic function of two versions of next-generation goggles, one preparing to roll out to troops and another in an early development stage. Researchers have combined image intensifier and infrared technology in one monocular device to offer troops improved sight capabilities in any light condition. As the U.S. Army prepares to expand the use of those tools from a few select units to a wider soldier population, it also is looking to the future. The next version of the goggles will digitize displays and enable users to pass and receive information to and from other sensors on the battlefield.

The U.S. Navy continues to take advantage of open architecture and an open business model to incorporate the most advanced capabilities into a key piece of the Submarine Combat System. Navy leadership is employing a program where technology upgrades can be inserted as necessary and as available to provide sailors with the tools they need to perform their missions. The effort reduces the time between upgrades as well as implements the best new ideas in industry more quickly. The plan is benefiting tactical control on submarines by keeping technologies in a state-of-the-practice configuration at all times, while being responsive to requests from the fleet and lowering costs.