US to build wireless network for future warfare

AFP ^ | 11.13.04

[4kevin]

The Pentagon, which invented the precursor to the Internet 40 years ago, has laid the first connections for a secure, wireless information network that proponents say will fundamentally transform warfare, a US newspaper reported. Estimates are that the Global Information Grid will cost 200 billion dollars in the next decade alone, but take two decades to complete, the New York Times said. The new network would fuse US military and intelligence services into a unified system and make volumes of information instantly available to soldiers on the battlefield, the Times said. Every member of the military would have "a God's-eye view" of the battlefield, said Robert Stevens, chief executive of top US military contractor Lockheed Martin Corporation. Proponents say it will become the most lethal weapon in the US arsenal and change the military and warfare the way the Internet changed business and culture. The system would allow "marines in a Humvee, in a faraway land, in the middle of a rainstorm, to open up their laptops, request imagery" from a spy satellite, and "get it downloaded within seconds," Peter Teets, under secretary of the Air Force, told Congress, according to the Times. The effort faces staggering technological hurdles.

[Hardastarboard]

I'm no hardware guru, but wouldn't a wireless internet system be really easy to jam by a determined enemy? What am I missing here?

[bobwoodard]

Not to wee-wee on anybody's parade but wasn't this thing sorta, kinda what the Terminator or Matrix flix were about???

SO far, they are leaving out an AI component needed. When they will start mentioning droids or cyborgs is the question...

[AdmSmith]

Ronnie, this might be of interest.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

Oh,

ALOHA,

RONNIE

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