Misguided Policies Restrict Guaranteed Reliable Communications Cmdr. Gregory E. Glaros, USN (Ret.)

The U.S. Defense Department is investing billions of dollars in new military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) systems such as the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF), Wideband Global Services (WGS) and Transformational Communications System (TCS) to transform the way U.S. forces communicate and operate in modern combat. Unfortunately, reliance on these expensive and delayed programs has hampered the networked capabilities of operating units. Specific programs

Investigators performing computer forensics can now do their jobs from the beach—or anywhere else. An emerging technology eliminates the need for experts to have hardware in hand before examining a system and works around legalities that prohibit the transport of information across borders. The technology has applications across law enforcement, the military, the intelligence community and private industry.

An airborne networking system may soon provide warfighters with real-time battlefield data gathered from sensors and reconnaissance platforms across a theater of operations. A high-altitude unmanned aircraft serving as a flying information exchange will link to a constellation of low-altitude robot air vehicles, making this capability possible. Users will be able to access data from battlefield computers and ground terminals.

The requirement to protect information and the necessity to share information frequently conflict, but government and industry obligations to do both effectively, efficiently and simultaneously now are connecting these two near opposites. A partnership of companies, both large and small, is combining resources and skills to enable the government to provide information to those who need it while denying access to those who do not.

A proposed constellation of reconnaissance satellites soon may allow European governments to acquire and share satellite imagery rapidly. The multinational effort seeks to launch a new generation of imaging spacecraft to replace aging platforms. The program will permit participating nations to access individual satellites and sensors to meet their intelligence requirements.

The U.S. military is revolutionizing the way it fights in urban environments. A tactical transformational concept that shifts the emphasis from the adversary to the local population has been fast-tracked to commanders operating in Afghanistan, and it is being supported by technology that originally was designed to help market toothpaste to China. The technology, along with some very innovative thinking, reveals both intended and unintended consequences of actions so decision-makers can anticipate the impact each will have in a particular situation.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence is integrating all of its intelligence and reconnaissance platforms and systems into a single architecture capable of providing 24-hour battlefield surveillance. The effort also will provide a means of distributing and disseminating collected data to warfighters down to the tactical level.

The intelligence community is breaking down boundaries—geographic and policy—in an effort to transform itself for the 21st century. As a new wave of personnel demands more information more rapidly, operations are becoming more federated, and the way agencies view their relationships with each other and foreign countries is adapting.

The intelligence community’s one-year-old Intellipedia already is paying benefits to its users, according to Central Intelligence Agency officials. However, a majority of the community remains unfamiliar with its benefits and uncomfortable with its use.