Fergie's Tech Blog

Battle-Testing Tech

Larry Greenemeier writes in InformationWeek:

Over the next two weeks, members of the U.S. military, select foreign armies, and domestic law-enforcement and emergency-response agencies will test cutting-edge technologies with the potential to serve on the front lines of the war against terrorism. And unlike many defense tech initiatives, this isn't about far-out ideas. The best stuff could be in the field in a matter of months.

Among the more than 100 technologies to be tested are a "masking shunt" that makes firewalls invisible to hackers. There's a system that uses everyday Web-services standards to link the U.S. and U.K. air forces. And there's a radio-frequency identification tagging system to send real-time casualty reports from battlefield to headquarters.

Called the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, or CWID, it's a decade-old annual event that has a new urgency and a changing roster of participants, given the troops in combat abroad and the shifting terrorist threats at home. While the technology is aimed at war and homeland security, the very nature of CWID means it also offers a glimpse into technologies destined to influence the business world, particularly where the concern is providing secure communications among disparate groups.

posted by Fergie @ 6/13/2005 12:43:00 PM