Promising advances in integrated circuit technologies such as nanowires, molecular electronics and fault tolerant architectures could help alleviate industry needs in designing and fabricating computer chips. New emerging technologies and approaches generally unknown to industry will be urgently required within six or seven years to help sustain continuing progress in dense integrated circuit production.

An engine of innovation, the Defense Research Projects Agency's Microsystems Technology Office relentlessly drives down the size, weight and power requirements of ever-higher-performance electronic components. Its development of semiconductor materials for innovative electronic devices places this organization on the cusp of major breakthroughs with next-generation communication, radar, electronic warfare, imaging and sensor systems.

An Orbital Express program demonstration underway almost 500 kilometers (300 miles) above the Earth is expected to have a profound effect on U.S. space operations and the design of military and commercial satellites. A series of successful maneuvers over the next several months is structured to demonstrate on-orbit satellite refueling and modular upgrades to avoid technical obsolescence.

The role of a relatively small defense agency operating from a high-rise office building not far from the Pentagon is to color outside the lines. This entrepreneurial organization has done that for 50 years and in the process has become a driving force in academia, industry and the military with one scientific breakthrough after another. The agency's technology advances continue to change the way the United States conducts warfare with startling battlefield triumphs.

Rust Belt Lessons for the Defense Department. By Cmdr. Gregory E. Glaros, USN (Ret.)

Last month I toured an industrial site once famous for its manufacturing proficiency. In its heyday, this steel and shipbuilding facility dominated the industrial world. Sparrows Point, in Baltimore's harbor, was a symbol of U.S. manufacturing might. But, it also has a special personal connection. This former world-class facility of Bethlehem Steel—my hometown's namesake—was responsible for building the USS Saratoga, which was the post-World-War-II aircraft carrier on which I embarked for a nine-month nugget cruise as an Intruder pilot during operation Desert Storm.

Information is a key weapon for combating an illusive and a decentralized enemy. By collecting, analyzing and sharing data among key organizations, the United States enhances its ability to outmaneuver and strike at its adversaries and to defend its shores against attack.

Interagency is the new joint. The U.S. military branches are shifting focus from developing methods for working with one another to determining the technologies and policies necessary to collaborate with other U.S. agencies and international partners. As warfare moves into the fourth generation, with an asymmetric, transnational enemy and battlefield, the need for better cooperation among allies and better understanding of a smart and technically savvy foe will be the keys to victory in a long war.

Forward observers are trading in their pencils and voice communications systems for a more digitized approach to calling for fire. A handheld technology reduces the chance for human error, enhances accuracy and saves troops valuable time.

As vastly improved surveillance capabilities and long-range, low-observable, precision-guided weaponry proliferates, the nuclear-powered submarine is emerging as the most likely platform to reach congested regions rapidly, to enter them covertly and to survive there for long periods. In today's FORCEnet environment, better near-real-time connectivity with submarines has become a goal of both technical and operational entities within the U.S. submarine force.