NATO nations are incorporating new military and commercial technologies to extend both the capabilities and the reach of the alliance's communications and information systems. But, many technological challenges lie ahead before the alliance and other allied nations can interoperate in coalition operations. And some cultural barriers found at the heart of intelligence and military operations remain to be overcome.

Military and humanitarian relief personnel now can reach out from the field more easily with a product that combines voice and data communications capabilities in a single box. The approximately 65-pound kit is field portable, ruggedized and self-cooling. It uses open architecture standards and can be applied to hastily formed networks, military operations, disaster response and medical relief efforts.

Binoculars may become the U.S. Navy's next tactical communications system. A prototype technology allows optical viewing systems to transmit voice, video and data communications on a beam of non-laser light. The equipment can be easily fitted to any commercially available binoculars and provides warfighters with a way to coordinate operations without relying on radios.

Daring the world's robot builders and visionaries to design autonomous ground vehicles that could traverse the treacherous terrain of the Mojave Desert was not enough for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Always on the lookout for new ways to solve persistent problems, it is now taking its quest to the streets-the city streets, that is. Dubbing its latest competition Urban Challenge, the agency is enticing the mechanically inclined dreamers of the world with substantial cash awards to develop a driverless vehicle that can master the roads of a metropolis.

The U.S. Defense Department has launched a new policy initiative designed to provide increased security and interoperability for wireless devices and systems. The undertaking provides rules for the use of commercial wireless equipment on government networks and emphasizes the adoption of open standards for wireless technologies.

While information technology experts have been hard at work securing the national infostructure, other key sectors in the United States' vital infrastructure may be vulnerable to attack through their own information systems. Critical elements such as ports, railroads, the electrical grid, fuel pipelines and hazardous materials facilities may be equipped with information systems that are virtual open doors to malicious marauders ranging from rookie hackers to al-Qaida terrorists.

The rush of innovative information technologies is both mandating a greater need for advanced security and spawning a new generation of potential solutions. The explosion in networking and wireless communications brings with it greater security requirements, and computing advances offer the potential for a range of new information assurance approaches.

The Sender Policy Framework is an emerging Internet standard that could cause a large part of the U.S. Army's legitimate e-mail to be categorized as spam and dropped. Large e-mail providers in the commercial world are in the initial phases of implementing the framework, and while deleterious effects on Army e-mail have been rare so far, they are almost guaranteed to grow as more providers and intermediaries adopt the standard. However, several courses of action can address the issue, and Army Knowledge Online already has taken steps to implement the framework while simultaneously protecting the future viability of the service's e-mail system.

The battlefield is not the only place where coalition cooperation happens today. The U.S. Army has found that sometimes the answers to United States' technical questions reside overseas, and one of its organizations is taking advantage of expertise available across the Atlantic to address relentless issues such as maximizing data throughput and minimizing information overload.

Dismounted infantry may one day rely on four-legged robots to carry equipment and ammunition into battle. The U.S. Defense Department envisions the machines following troops into rugged terrain or through densely packed urban areas too confined for conventional vehicles. These automated quadrupeds are part of a larger government initiative to study how animals move and to apply those characteristics to robotic systems.