Optical fiber may be losing one of its last advantages over wireless as military experimenters have demonstrated the ability to establish secure Internet radio frequency links over more than three dozen miles. This capability can be established to serve land forces on the move, aircraft operating in a small area or ships sailing near unfamiliar coastlines.

Location and intelligence information that only recently was introduced to U.S. Army ground combat vehicles soon may find its way into the hands of the individual soldier. Army engineers working with industry partners are finding ways to move vital position-location information down past the command level. The result may be a two-way flow of intelligence between headquarters and individual soldiers on the ground.

The U.S. Army is leading the charge in securing the new networking frontier: wireless communications. Recognizing the benefits and vulnerabilities of staying connected without being tied to wires, the Army's leadership has developed a policy that highlights security and that has become the model for all the services as well as for the U.S. Defense Department. Industry offers critical components to help the Army and others comply with these policies by designing solutions and sharing best business practices.

A little more than a month ago, the United States observed Memorial Day, during which it remembered the men and women who have given their lives in support of freedom. Many other AFCEA-chaptered countries celebrate the equivalent of Remembrance Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, commemorating the coming of peace in Europe after World War I and honoring those who have given their lives for freedom or another noble cause. Here in San Diego at Camp Pendleton, Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, USMC, commanding general, 1st Marine Division, was the keynote speaker for Memorial Day services held May 30, 2005, at Camp Pendleton. He paid tribute to the 420 U.S. Marines who have died in the past 365 days of the global war on terrorism. Quoting George Orwell, he said, "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Armed forces from a multitude of nations and U.S. government agencies will come together next month for their annual examination of interoperability in a coalition environment. Although the focus will be on homeland defense and homeland security technologies, participants in the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) also will scrutinize promising communications capabilities with broader missions in mind.

This is an interesting question, and if I truly knew the answer, I would be very rich and powerful. However, I am not any better at predicting the future than anyone else. Yet I find this to be a useful intellectual exercise as the alternative leaves us substituting hope for strategy, chaos management for a campaign plan and damage control for daily activity.

Defeating terrorism will require close coalition coordination, especially for information garnered in the network-centric battlespace. Being able to provide accurate intelligence rapidly to the right coalition forces may prove to be a key element in winning the war on terror.

The People's Republic of China is building the necessary infrastructure to mine the ports of Taiwan should military conflict break out between the two governments. This capability would give China an effective blockade ability without the risk of escalation that would emerge from a direct military confrontation with the United States.

The two military commands primarily responsible for homeland defense are coordinating their efforts on the new front lines of cyberspace. Because both offensive and defensive information operations are an integral part of protecting North America, the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command are training their experts in combined environments to ensure that they can act swiftly when responding to threats or planning strategies.

The U.S. Army is marshalling the forces of supercomputers and superanalysts in an effort to merge diverse battlefield intelligence data into knowledge for commanders. The intention is to establish a technology-based means of fusing vast amounts of sensor data into effective information without magnifying the inescapable errors that creep into data at various stages.