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Scientists at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are a phase closer to putting chemical detectors into the hands of everyone who wants them. Developers have finished demonstrating a miniaturized sensor that can fit into the now-omnipresent personal cell phone. Early testing shows promise for small, inexpensive technology, and over the next year or so project personnel plan to test its real-world application. The cell phone platform would enable crowd sourcing to reduce false positive readings, and it would support instant alerts that would send out timely notifications. The goal of developers is to improve public safety, enhance homeland security and ultimately save lives. In this next round of development, researchers with the program have to figure out how the network will support the technology and determine whether applications that seem strong in the laboratory will function in the field.

The U.S. federal information technology work force is sandwiched between two major trends it must address to continue successful operations—the retirement eligibility of the Baby Boomer generation and the emergence of Web 2.0. The former threatens to empty hundreds of thousands of positions across the government, while the latter is shifting how the work force thinks about and uses technology. Solutions for both these issues converge in the Net Generation (sometimes referred to as Generation Y or the Millennial Generation), the demographic of youth currently preparing to enter institutions of higher learning and the job market. However, this population group is not a panacea for the government’s problems, because the ideas held by these young adults will challenge the status quo.

The federal government has approved commercial products to operate on a defense cloud, marking the first time industry online offerings with this level of security are accessible to the military via such an environment. The accreditation, which took approximately two years, means that military organizations can route sensitive data through online software products. As more clients migrate to the cloud and employ the technology, the cost of use will drop. This creates a benefit for anyone wishing to take advantage of the offerings, which include a suite of products designed to enhance communications across Web, social and contact center touch points.

When the U.S. Army needs to determine if an area on the battlefield is safe or is threatened by hidden menaces, it may be calling on its own custom-made mosquito air force to probe the area and report back to headquarters. Army researchers are developing life-size robotic sensor platforms based on small flying insects.

A different approach to focal plane array technology is leading to better and less expensive infrared sensors for a broad range of applications. For users in the battlespace, this development will mean higher resolution images in systems that require less maintenance even in demanding conditions.

Open information sharing in diverse environments is critical. A new initiative in Afghanistan called UnityNet can help bring unclassified information to bear to support U.S. and coalition strategy there and elsewhere around the globe. UnityNet’s goal is straightforward: networking people together in a unity of effort for a common cause. The key points are people and unity of effort. This is not about technology; it is about changing behavior.

Researchers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and Electronic Warfare Associates Incorporated have partnered to implement a new intrusion detection architecture designed to defend against advanced persistent threat. The architecture, a component of the Network Attack Characterization, Modeling and Simulation Testbed, is an Army Research Laboratory computer network defense enclave that secures against cyber adversaries by providing rapid flexible responses to new threats. The program was launched in 2008 to combat the growing threat of cyberwar by improving intelligence sharing and computer network defense tactics among the U.S. Defense Department, cleared defense contractors, universities and private companies.

The United States has the world’s largest and most costly networks, but these networks must be configured better to support the warfighters in the era of cyberwarfare. According to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn, the U.S. Defense Department operates more than 15,000 networks; however these networks have no economies of scale, and many do not meet minimum commercial standards for availability or connection latency. Most children of Defense Department workers have better connectivity and functionality in their homes than their parents have at work.

Many of today’s original ideas about a global command and control system can be traced to Vice Adm. Jerry Tuttle, USN (Ret.), who served as director, Space and Electronic Warfare, from 1989 until his retirement in 1994. Faced with the need to restructure the Naval Telecommunications System to handle dramatically increased message traffic, Tuttle could have proposed buying bigger pipes. Instead, he created the Copernicus concept for evolving the Navy’s networks. His immediate objective was to restructure the Naval Telecommunications System and then to extend it to other parts of the Navy as well as to other military departments. Copernicus concentrated on the Navy’s immediate needs for increased bandwidth and for integrated communications.

John Gannon has been named president, information solutions business, BAE Systems, Reston, Virginia.