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The U.S. Air Force is building a robust cyberwar capability as part of a revised mission that adds cyberspace to the service's fighting domains of air and space. As part of this effort, the secretary of the Air Force and the chief of staff of the Air Force established a Cyberspace Task Force to help frame the service's direction in this third domain. The task force is working to harness capabilities, take stock of gaps and vulnerabilities, and increase awareness about cyberspace.

With a flip of a switch, a new tactical communications terminal enables warfighters to choose between troposcatter and satellite communications. This technology could reduce the demand on heavily saturated satellite bandwidth through its use of over-the-horizon radio transmissions to carry voice, data and real-time video imagery.

A few years ago, the U.S. Defense Department stated that transformation is "a process that shapes the changing nature of military competition … through new combinations of concepts, capabilities, people and organizations." It was a good enough start, but if this description is to hold, then what defines the shape of both current and future transformational success? A process without successful execution or quantitative feedback is of little value. Transformation requires more than change for change's sake.

A Tough Scorecard for Transformation By Cmdr. Gregory E. Glaros, USN (Ret.)

A team of engineers, physicists and biologists is seeking to create insect cyborgs—creatures with a mixture of organic and mechanical parts that could be used for military applications. The realization of cyborgs with embedded machine components would provide stealthy robots that use their own muscle actuators, which have been developed over millions of years of evolution.

Military forces around the world can expect better information sharing beginning next year. The launch of the next generation of satellite communications will bring an order of magnitude jump in communications ability over current capabilities, and the new technology will interact with legacy systems to provide improved services for all users.

A tiny nation on the brink of bankruptcy and a tenacious technological futurist could parent a telecommunications leap as significant as the Internet itself. The Republic of Nauru, a South Pacific island one-quarter the size of Manhattan, is set to be the host country licensor of the Super Wide Area Network, defined by its creator as Wi-Fi or WiMAX on steroids. Once built and launched, the satellite system not only would offer unheard-of ubiquitous communications capabilities but also would bridge the digital divide with a business model that provides citizens of even the poorest countries with access to the latest technologies.

Troops on the move soon will find connecting to other service members much easier and less cumbersome. A satellite terminal in development will put connectivity at the fingertips and on the backs of warfighters. This ruggedized manpack combines a satellite terminal and High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor Type 1 security tool into one device. The terminal will give the military an Internet protocol advantage by providing secure, high-speed Internet access.

Anew type of digital receiver driven by a superconducting microprocessor could greatly increase the sensitivity of U.S. military satellite communications terminals. By directly converting signals from the antenna into data, the device eliminates the need for analog conversion systems, saving equipment space and reducing airlift and maintenance costs.

In the global war on cyberterrorism, the networks and applications that sprouted throughout the U.S. Navy like dandelions in spring are being culled to ensure that the most beneficial remain and can be centrally managed. The largest endeavor moves the Navy from fragmented legacy systems to centrally managed, decentrally executed configurations. At the same time, feeding incident data from many network centers into a single security site is helping cyberwarriors protect not only classified information but also other high-value data targets.