Internet, Wireless Play A Key Role In Iraq War
The U.S. military is showcasing a number of digital war-fighting technologies in the Iraqi war. Analyst Steve Sigmond says, for example, that systems will be melded to give carrier battle groups a consolidated, real-time view of the action, including radar, air traffic, and weapons systems.
On the ground, infantry, tanks, and other forces feed video images of the battle to commanders so they can more accurately assess the situation.
Soldiers will even be able to use gun-mounted cameras to see what is around a corner, viewing the image from a display screen fitted to their helmets.
Internet technology also has a prominent role in an Iraq war, a realization of efforts at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the late 1970s.
Cyberwar expert Winn Schwartau says the type of Internet used by the military is highly secure, closed off from the commercial Internet, and running over dedicated satellite links. Just as with the larger Internet, bandwidth and traffic demands will strain the system, and infrastructure is vulnerable to physical attack, either by conventional weapons or electromagnetic pulse technology.
The Iraqi military is also said to have acquired GPS-jamming technology from foreign sources. Iraq’s own reliance on technology is limited in comparison to that of the United States, and experts plan to examine the war for insights in how technology affects the U.S.-Iraq engagement.
Besides technology directly related to battle, the U.S. is already using email for psychological operations on Iraqi officers and is screening its own soldiers’ email for information leaks.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Investor’s Business Daily (03/17/03) P. A4; Tsuruoka, Doug.
