WASHINGTON-A new Department of Defense report says the military will depend on broadband and wireless technologies in future warfare, a policy direction that could create added business opportunities for telecom and high-tech industry sectors.
The Quadrennial Defense Review Report, the second comprehensive defense assessment since 2001, expands on efforts to transform the military into one that is highly mobile and leveraged by information connectivity. The report highlights not only how wireless, broadband and other technologies can further the Pentagon’s mission-today dominated by the war on global terror-but also how the U.S. is challenged by terrorists’ exploitation of the very same technologies.
“Harnessing the power of information connectivity defines net-centricity. By enabling critical relationships between organizations and people, the department is able to accelerate the speed of business processes, operational decision-making and subsequent actions. Recent operational experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated the value of net-centric operations,” the QDR stated. “Such connectivity is helping joint forces gain greater situational awareness to attack the enemy.” The Pentagon is fond of emphasizing the strategic imperative of information superiority.
The report describes how wireless and broadband technologies can improve communications between soldiers themselves and between soldier and machine. Indeed, as the QDR points out, satellite communications today can enable almost instantaneous re-targeting of in-flight bombers and cruise missiles.
The Pentagon, among other things, wants the joint command and control for homeland defense and civil support mission to mesh better by having interoperable communications with other agencies and local governments. Though the Pentagon’s Joint Tactical Radio System is a key component of the defense Global Information Grid, it has needed revamping. The QDR applauded “a recent, much-needed restructuring of the troubled JTRS program”-an achievement itself brought about by a fundamental change stressing collaboration across the culturally varied military services and the defense establishment’s civilian arm.
The Pentagon’s willingness to push the edge of the envelope to improve communications, defense capability and battlefield operational efficiency has led to historic `win-wins’ for the military and industry, with CDMA, GPS, ultra-wideband and other wireless technologies battle-tested before becoming mass-market commercial successes. The Internet-increasingly migrating to a wireless platform-has military origins as well. The QDR said the military is extending the communications backbone down to the smallest tactical unit in the field, a data strategy permitting the fusion of information from any platform.
Indeed, DoD is as ambitious as retail king Wal-Mart in desiring to leverage radio-frequency identification technology to improve supply-chain inventory management.
Not lost on the Pentagon is the fact that terrorists, lacking the fire power of the U.S. and its allies, rely heavily on wireless and other technologies to offset their comparative lack of military might.
“Terrorist networks oppose globalization and the expansion of freedom it brings. Paradoxically, they use the very instruments of globalization-the unfettered flow of information and ideas, goods and services, capital, people and technology-as their preferred means of attack,” the QDR stated. “They target symbols of modernity like skyscrapers with civilian jetliners used as missiles. They exploit the Internet as a cyber sanctuary, which enables the transfer of funds and the cross-training of geographically isolated cells. They use cell phones and text messaging to order attacks and detonate car bombs.”
The latter adaptation of wireless technology has proved among the most deadly of terrorist tactics in Iraq and elsewhere. As such, the QDR said more than $1.3 billion was set aside in fiscal 2005 to develop wireless-based solutions to counter cell-phone-detonated roadside bombs known as “improvised explosive devices.”
Perhaps most important has been the change in the Pentagon’s mindset with respect to spectrum management.
The Pentagon, forced to give up frequencies during the 1990s in the aftermath of the Cold War’s end and to accept a new government drive to bulk up for commercial competition on the global stage, strongly resented surrendering spectrum to the wireless industry. There was an adversarial relationship among the military, industry and spectrum managers, who were put in the uncomfortable position as honest brokers.
But all that is changing. Industry, particularly following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has shown a more acute appreciation of DoD’s spectrum position. The military, for its part, has gained a better grasp of economic security as a key element of U.S. strength in the 21st century. There is far more collaboration and collegiality these days owing to a harsh reality: Both military and industry are expected to face increased demands for spectrum that’s in short supply, and increased sharing of the airwaves between government and non-government is one obvious solution to that challenge.
The results are impressive. Military-industry spectrum compromises have opened the way for commercial deployment of new UWB, third-generation wireless and Wi-Fi services.
