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.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff is taking the next evolutionary step in multinational and interagency interoperability this month with the renaming of one of the U.S. military's premier events. The Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration is now officially the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, which better reflects its ongoing metamorphosis from a purely service-centric technology showcase to a forum where participants from diverse organizations and many nations work on different types of interoperability. Future events will continue to focus on capabilities that can be delivered to the warfighter quickly, a change that was introduced in the 2004 event.

The Defense Information Systems Agency, in cooperation with U.S. Joint Forces Command and U.S. Strategic Command, is demonstrating new command and control capabilities this month. The pilot event, called Oktoberfest, illustrates 31 services from the agency's Net-Centric Enterprise Services program, command and control communities of interest services, mission-specific services and the user-defined operational picture. It provides key mission capabilities that support combatant command mission-approved threads, including services that provide situational awareness and

As defense simulation grows more complex and more capable, it is segmenting just as it moves toward greater interoperability. Instead of diverse simulations evolving into a single, all-encompassing synthetic battlespace, the course is toward individual activities or systems simulated by powerful computing technologies. The goal of modeling developers is to treat these new simulations as modules and assemble them into large-scale simulations that are tailored to trainees' or commanders' requirements.