Information for the warrior

The Air Force has been rapidly implementing new structures to provide lightweight communications systems between a theater of operations and rear bases, within the theater of operations, and to other joint Service components. The author describes the effect that the commercial sector is having on several research and development programs being pursued in support of this mission. The Department of Defence (DoD) must be prepared for conflicts that can occur anywhere in the world. As such, the commercial infrastructure must be considered as one of many building blocks for a global system capable of reaching any theater of interest. Thus, the DoD must not only develop the technologies required to extend command and control (C²) into highly hostile environments, but must integrate these technologies with a commercial infrastructure that was designed to meet civilian market demands. This integration is discussed from three perspectives: the integration of the associated transmission fabric; the integration of military and commercial network management functions; and the seamless access to information across this global environment in a location-transparent manner