May 18, 2008: The U.S. Air Force is trying to take the lead
in developing, and controlling, the battlefield wireless Internet. The army and
navy are also developing similar technologies, but for this sort of thing to
work best, everyone should be able to talk to everyone else. In the past, each
of the services had their own unique radio equipment, making it difficult, and
often impossible, for, say, a tank battalion to talk, via radio, to air force
planes overhead, or navy ships offshore. Special communications teams, equipped
with radios from two or more services, were formed when such inter-service
communications was really necessary.
All the
services agree that a wireless military Internet, that would operate in a
combat zone, would be a swell thing. But the reality is that each service
selects the communications gear that suits its own requirements best. That
means no one wants to give up a little capability just so they can easily
communicate with another service. But new inter-service radios have been in the
works for over a decade. Despite the usual (and some unusual) bureaucratic
delays, work on these "joint" radios continues. But in the meantime, everyone
has been improvising using satellite communications, and whatever else they can
scrounge up. Satcom is expensive, but it works great. There is not enough
satellite communications capacity available to let everyone, or even a lot of
users, communicate. So the air force has been developing systems that enable
aircraft to mainly send pictures, instant messages and voice between themselves,
with the ability to link to ground units or ships as well. The air force has
not decided on which of these systems it will adopt, and is trying to get the
army and navy to team with them to use the same system. That's a long shot, but
a good deal for all concerned if it ever happens. Wartime pressures are moving
all this along more quickly, but once the wars are over, the process of
selecting and implementing a battlefield Internet system will slip into the
usual slow motion.
