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The North American wireless market is poised for the introduction of next-generation applications that deliver sophisticated multimedia and data products to handheld devices. Within the next 24 months, a variety of third-generation technologies services will become available, allowing consumers and enterprises to conduct business and to access data more efficiently.

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.

The science of the very small has big military, economic and security implications for the future. From molecular manufacturing to incredibly smart chemical weapons, the raw materials and ultimate paraphernalia that nanotechnology will enable boggle the imagination of even science fiction aficionados. However, experts who scrutinize the science and significance of nanoscale devices differ on how this kind technology will affect future generations as well as on what should be done today to keep the United States out front in this field.

Researchers have discovered a class of nanoscale devices that can self-assemble when exposed to light. These sub-microscopic structures may provide new methods for manufacturing electronic components such as photonic devices and memory storage systems for computers. Another potential application for the technology is in splitting water molecules to generate hydrogen for use as fuel.

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.

The day may not be far off when microscopic machines embed a phone in an individual biological cell, decode a human genome or sniff scents with the acuity of the best-trained bloodhound.

If his eyesight had not failed him, Scott Dixon Smith might never have embarked on a career in technology, let alone one supplying visualization software to corporations and federal agencies. In fact, even before he entered college on a tennis scholarship, Smith already had charted a completely different course.

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.

A broad-based initiative underway in the U.S. Defense Department aims to ensure that all of the data amassed and processed in the future battlespace truly can become useful knowledge to all U.S. forces. This effort is trying to make all data sources, correlators and user interfaces resident on the defense network so that a user could select those best suited for his or her requirements.

Force transformation and ongoing military operations are both complementing and competing for new information technology system development. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are validating many concepts and technologies, but requirements emerging from those fronts threaten to derail intricate long-term plans for modernizing the force across network-centric lines.