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Warfighters and emergency responders are using the same unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies for rapid area surveillance. This capability goes beyond mere direct downlinks, as the airborne craft are able to transmit data that can be reprocessed and distributed to users in near real time.

Achieving two goals will exponentially advance the power of the network.

Two of the most stubborn hurdles to effective defense networking are security and interoperability, and the two may be linked. Brig. Andy Bristow offered his own assessment of a connection between the two at the Tuesday MILCOM 2010 luncheon address.

Many defense technologies add capabilities, but tactical radios may be assuming a most unlikely role as battlefield sensors.

Bulgaria’s technology sector enjoyed healthy growth rates in the late 1990s and the early part of this century, but that growth has largely flatlined due to the worldwide banking crisis and resulting recession. With the downturn in the economy, the government has scaled back spending in some high-profile military and advanced technology efforts. In the summer of 2009, for example, the government killed a planned nanotechnology center in an effort to save 50 million Bulgarian lev, which equals roughly $33 million. The cancellation occurred just months after the government announced an agreement with IBM to build the center.

Radio technology being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency uses electromagnetic spectrum so effectively that it has gained White House attention and is being touted by government officials for possible commercial use both domestically and internationally.

In an effort to improve situational awareness down to the squad leader level, the U.S. Marines Corps and Army intend to provide the next-generation situational awareness software on ruggedized handheld platforms similar to smart phones or personal digital assistants. The Joint Battle Command-Platform is the second increment of Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below software that was fielded more than a decade ago. The new platform is intended to provide integrated, on-the-move, timely, relevant command and control and situational awareness information at all echelons, enabling units to become more survivable and lethal. It also will improve combat effectiveness, reduce risk of fratricide, improve latency, security and interoperability within the joint environment, and provide an integrated network with increased bandwidth and a more user-friendly interface.

Cyberdefense is far from being a challenge just for the United States—there are many international aspects to this issue. In this column last month, I cited the important Foreign Affairs article “Defending a New Domain” by Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Lynn, which addresses U.S. Defense Department cyberstrategy head on. Alliance relationships depend on shared trust, especially in networked environments. Lynn’s article notes that, “Some of the United States’ computer defenses are already linked with those of U.S. allies, especially through existing signals intelligence partnerships, but greater levels of cooperation are needed to stay ahead of the cyberthreat. Stronger agreements to facilitate the sharing of information, technology and intelligence must be made with a greater number of allies.”

Members of a tactical operations center soon may be able to count on chatting as a reliable means of second-to-second communications with each other and those in other centers. As part of a Small Business Innovation Research project, the Space and Naval Warfare Center–Pacific is exploring readily available commercial solutions that would enable numerous centers’ members to keep up to date even after systems go down. If fielded, the system also would increase bandwidth usage efficiency and communications dependability. Research into the capability is being conducted as part of the larger Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program. The most recent development includes the move to the second phase of a contract with CoCo Communications Corporation, Seattle, and comprises continued research and new testing of a distributed chat capability.

Work on the Soldier Radio Waveform is focusing on increasing the number of nodes—currently up to 36 radios—that can stay connected in a chaotic environment. Recent testing indicates that it shows great promise for keeping warfighters at the platoon level connected to their squad leader with both data and voice even when communications among the entire squad are lost. The waveform searches for other available radios from the same squad, then hops back through the nodes to create a path for data and voice communications.