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An airborne sensor system that provides standoff and persistent wide-area surveillance of dismounted troops and vehicles moving through foliage holds the potential to change the scope of warfare. Mounting this sensor beneath an unmanned helicopter would enable identification of possible ambush sites. This small radar also denies concealment and sanctuary to enemy units hiding in wooded areas or moving in the open during darkness or adverse weather.

Built for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, the new A160 Hummingbird unmanned helicopter is designed to fly autonomously with a high-altitude endurance of 20 hours. This aerodynamically clean platform rivals fixed-wing aircraft performance to employ a suite of sensors, including foliage penetration radar that unmasks hidden troops and vehicles.

Technologies developed for the new Network Centric Radio System will provide reliable, mobile and secure backbone battlefield communications. Designed for use with a maneuver force, the system's ad hoc capability dynamically reconfigures itself to maintain network connectivity automatically. Vehicles in the network can communicate routinely whenever within range of each other without manual configuration.

Critical actionable military data obscured by foreign languages and often masked in large volumes of different types of media are both highly important and perishable. The global deployment of a dozen monitoring systems is enabling software applications to transcribe and translate both text and speech and distill large volumes of information in multiple languages, including Arabic and Chinese.

Significant individual technology advances are being harnessed to facilitate effective cognitive computing systems. These information system technologies focus on a common application that radically improves the way computers support human beings. A cognitive system is emerging that can reason, learn from experience, be told what to do, explain its actions and respond robustly to surprise.

Instead of hosting the mother of all battles, the Iraq War has proved to be the mother of invention for U.S. Army electronic warfare. Faced with the necessity of countering improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the Army has committed to developing a full-scale electronic warfare capability that will be distributed throughout the entire force. That capability already has achieved a measure of success in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Army now is tailoring it to interoperate effectively in joint operations.

The transformation fever that is igniting innovation throughout the services is wicking its way up to the joint military leadership. Stoking the fires is the innovative Joint Net-Centric Operations Campaign Plan that calls for new ways of connecting the warfighter, leveraging enterprise services, securing the network, accelerating information sharing, synchronizing network capability delivery and managing the enterprise. Firing up these bold initiatives will require changing acquisition processes, fostering not only interoperability but also interdependence and tapping the talents of an Internet generation consumed with the possibilities of the next new capability.

The lines between intelligence, operations and planning continue to blur as the U.S. military expands its efforts to integrate the three disciplines. By combining personnel from the three fields within joint centers at the national, command and tactical levels, the U.S. Defense Department aims to transform how missions are undertaken. Appropriately, the command designated for joint operations is leading an effort to help other commands consolidate their vital functions in these centers.

The U.S. joint organization baptized by fire in Persian Gulf operations is extending its innate flexibility to reserve warfighters working at the tip of the spear. The Standing Joint Force Headquarters is recruiting officer reservists willing to deploy to disaster hot spots with only 72 hours notice. In return, these new members augmenting rapid response teams will enjoy more predictability in their duty schedule. According to U.S. Joint Forces Command leaders, the innovative approach is a win-win proposition: The military leverages the expertise found in the civilian sector, and reservists can balance their military, business and personal lives better.

The U.S. military is moving closer to full implementation of a system that will transform how intelligence is collected and disseminated. By making raw and complete material available to analysts and others worldwide, the technology will blur the line dividing operations and intelligence.