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Developers are using an ultra-fast broadband engine designed to make video games faster and more realistic to improve warfighting tools. This breakthrough capability-called the next disruptive technology by some experts-is smaller and more powerful than its predecessors and is causing the military and defense contractors to rethink the way they design systems.

The composition of the U.S. Army's strategic and tactical signal brigades is evolving to meet the changing needs of the warfighter, and communications is at the crux of the transformation. Simultaneously required for transformation is the centralization of knowledge, security, capabilities and maintenance.

The U.S. Defense Department is shifting away from building its own communications tools and services and is reaching out to the private sector for help in providing information to those who need it. The public sector is seeking to form partnerships with industry based on open standards, network centricity and collaboration between developers and end users to supply tools to the troops before the technology is obsolete.

New and effective technologies will be essential for NATO to carry out missions beyond its traditional areas of responsibility. Industry is a key player in providing needed capabilities, and ongoing cooperative efforts between the Atlantic alliance and its commercial partners need to be enhanced and their procedures improved.

Without a doubt, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and specifically the impact it will have on how personnel think about and deploy business services will affect the way the Office of Naval Research (ONR) does business. As others have stated in this column, the biggest challenge will be the processes and thinking that must be put in place to make the technology work.

The tactical level of the Global War on Terrorism is having a greater effect on the war's strategic outcome than we ever would have predicted. Rather than being an issue of doctrine or force structure, this is largely an information technology issue. Today, information gathering and information transfer occur blindly from the tactical level to the strategic level.

Coalition interoperability and transformation dominate the challenges facing the U.S. Army-Pacific as it supports the Global War on Terrorism. Nearby wars, backyard threats and rapidly changing network-centric technologies all compete for top billing for a component command that encompasses the world's largest ocean and more than three dozen countries.

Communicating through a new community of interest network, coalition forces from eight countries examined information-sharing issues such as language and interoperability during a recent exercise in the Pacific Ocean. This effort was part of an intensive warfighting training session that gave the national militaries a chance to expand, improve and connect their command, control, communications and computer capabilities.

Two energy-starved Asian economic dynamos may face potential conflict in their quest for access to scarce oil reserves. China and Japan are finding themselves competing for the same undersea oil deposits, and this could lead to armed confrontations between the former antagonists.

Technology initially deployed to help protect Iraq's citizens during the referendum of the country's first constitution is now increasing security for U.S. troop convoys traversing the dangerous roads of Southwest Asia. By expanding the use of Internet protocol technology, the U.S. Air Force has extended the range of line-of-sight radios, enlarging the view of the battlefield and giving commanders more real-time information. The capability not only is making troops safer on the road but also is moving some warfighters out of dangerous areas while freeing up assets that can now be used for the missions they were designed to support.