October 1, 2009: The U.S. Army currently has a serious problem with the intelligence bureaucracy. The problem is this; all soldiers using a data network must have a security clearance of at least "Secret" level. That's because there's a regulation that considers the battlefield Internet type systems now in use (like Blue Force Tracker and the Land Warrior eyepiece that displays troop location data). Currently, the army has a waiver for this, because these projects are still considered "in development." But the security bureaucrats are beginning to realize that army "development" projects are very similar to how all Google software products used to be called "Beta" (still in test phase.) The security bureaucracy wants the army to comply, and only let people, with a security clearance, use these networks.
While the Department of Defense has about 2.5 million people with security clearances (most of them civilian employees or contractor personnel), most infantry troops do not have one. It costs over $10,000, and over six months to get someone a "Secret" level clearance. The army does not want to do this. Not just because of the expense, but because not everyone can pass the background check. Chaos would result if only part of an infantry unit were able to use networked data systems.
