New Networks Potential Untapped Until Services Shrink Units, Strip Hierarchy

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http://defense.aol.com/2013/02/11/new-networks-will-miss-potential-until-services-shrink-units-st/



New Networks Potential Untapped Until Services Shrink Units, Strip Hierarchy
By David Axe
Published: February 11, 2013

Sitting in the cockpit of her A-10 Warthog somewhere over Florida's Eglin Air Force Base on Jan. 10, Maj. Olivia Elliott flipped a switch. In an instant her blunt, twin-engine warplane with the 30-millimeter cannon in the nose was transformed. No longer just the Air Force's most heavily-armed attack jet, now the A-10 was also a flying wireless router, providing Internet connectivity to anyone in range -- and with the right password.

The final test of the Network-Tactical, or Net-T, upgrade to the Northrop Grumman LITENING and Lockheed Martin Sniper targeting pods, carried by A-10s and other warplanes, is the latest in a long chain of communications breakthroughs by the U.S. military and the defense industry.

From handheld devices capable of streaming video from overhead drones to encrypted data-links allowing warships to share radar data and cue targets for each other's missiles the Pentagon has debuted a dizzying array of new systems meant to build the information connections in a network over the last 10 years.

But the services have not changed how they are organized to make use of the new ways of sharing information. Without a profound shift in the way American forces are structured and led, Net-T and other networking technologies will never meet their full potential, according to one leading military thinker and advocate for "network-centric" warfare.