Future military communications equipment may one day be able to detect and use locally available radio spectrum automatically. U.S. Defense Department researchers are developing methods that allow systems to scan for unassigned frequency bands autonomously. These technologies will allow warfighters to deploy quickly anywhere in the world without time-consuming spectrum management and allocation concerns.

The potential of network-centric operations is growing with the capability to link, interpret, process, manage and share data from multiple sensors in near real time and throughout a battlespace. This information could be delivered directly to a commander's laptop computer to provide a clearer and more complete picture of detected threats.

The menu for U.S. Army information operations now runs several courses long as the service integrates low-end news activities directed at local populace with high-end cyberspace defense and attack. As all of these elements come together in a common operational mode, the future cyberwarrior may see netwar visualization capabilities that provide cyberspace situational awareness akin to icon-driven battlefield monitoring systems.

Satellite communications, Web services and imagery have come of age in the battlespace of operation Enduring Freedom. This first network-centric war has revealed an explosion in capabilities that has been matched by information demands at all levels of command.

The recent success of network-centric warriors in operation Enduring Freedom has shined the spotlight on information operations. News reports are flush with stories of how allied forces employed information for precise real-time targeting of enemy assets. The results of these operations stand in testimony to their effectiveness: a brutal totalitarian dictatorship overthrown and its terrorist cohorts routed from their places of sanctuary.

An advanced thin-client station allows U.S. intelligence analysts to work more effectively by enabling them to share information efficiently on the same network. Data that once resided on multiple networks is now stored on a secure server providing material to individual desktop units. The equipment creates a smaller hardware footprint while improving workflow and reducing security risks.

Europe's armed forces are using virtual reality to develop and integrate new technologies. Consisting of several networked facilities operating as a single entity, this research and design capability allows defense firms and their customers to test how systems operate before funds are committed for acquisition and production. This virtual testing center uses sophisticated modeling and simulation functions to create operational and training methodologies.

The accelerating tempo along with the growing number of military operations is taking a toll on joint training, but the U.S. military and its allies are compensating with technology and adaptive planning. In its first integration training event focusing on functional component commands, the Joint National Training Capability helped militaries from numerous nations prepare to fight in a coalition environment by providing modeling and simulation components. The exercise also certified the USS John F. Kennedy carrier strike group to deploy to real-world operations and provided interim training for the USS Harry S Truman group.

The global war on terrorism has clearly demonstrated both challenges and opportunities facing the U.S. Marine Corps as a new generation of technically savvy leaders emerge. The Marine Corps must capitalize on the lessons learned and develop information technology and communications capabilities to meet the operational demands of these new leaders who find themselves operating in an uncertain, highly fluid, expeditionary environment. Central in our lessons learned is recognition of the power of a netted force. Distributed operations with forces that can be massed at a time and place of our own choosing to create desired effects require a robust, adaptable network. I do not accept the notion that Marines might simply outdistance or outrun their command and control (C2) communications capabilities when it is most critically needed-during combat operations.

The U.S. Army and the commercial sector are very much engaged in new and emerging technologies, and the service is extending the edge of the network. In the past, the Army network went to the tactical brigades through mobile subscriber equipment. With the deployment of the Joint Network Transport Capability-Spiral One (JNTC-S) providing some of the Warfighter Information Network–Tactical (WIN-T) capabilities to one of the next units to deploy to Iraq (the 3rd Infantry Division), the Army will be extending the network down to the battalion level. And, now the information technology network reaches in some cases down to the platform-the soldier and/or the weapon.