September 2008
FOCUS: Europe
The home of NATO has awakened from more than a decade of sleep to modernize its armed forces. As the European Union realizes that it must have a viable military force to remain relevant in the post-Cold-War era, modernization momentum has picked up. SIGNAL Magazine’s September issue looks at what some European countries are doing and the role that NATO is playing in their efforts:
- Lt. Gen. Vlastimil Picek, CZAF, chief of the general staff of the Czech armed forces, lays out the plan for modernizing the Czech military.
- Dag Wilhelmsen, head of NATO's Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A), describes the NC3A's role in NATO transformation and cyber defense.
- Lt. Gen. Ulrich Wolf, GEA, head of NATO's Communication and Information Systems Services Agency (NACISA), outlines NACISA’s mission, challenges and role in protecting the alliance's computer networks.
- France’s Operation Scorpion is the driving force behind the French Army’s transformation.
- Switzerland and Italy choose similar paths to future soldier systems.
- The United Kingdom now rents battlefield unmanned aerial vehicle services from a private contractor.
- Spain’s NEON is its army’s new command, control, communications, computers and intelligence system.
FOCUS: Biometrics
As identification becomes more crucial, biometrics increases in importance across the spectrum of government activities. Government agencies are exploiting it for internal security; law enforcement is counting on it to identify perpetrators; and the military is looking at it for both purposes. SIGNAL looks at some of those efforts in a focus report:
- The U.S. Defense Department is experimenting with a variety of biometric technologies for a wide range of applications.
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking to biometrics for next-generation identification.
U.S. Southern Command
Toiling in relative obscurity south of the border is the U.S. Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM. Its mission encompasses just about every threat that challenges the United States: terrorism, narcotics smuggling and foreign political instability. SIGNAL sheds light on these emerging threats and how the command is striving to address them:
- SOUTHCOM’s J-2 outlines the command’s intelligence mission.
The September 2008 issue of SIGNAL includes other coverage of traditional areas of interest:
- Warfighters glean new approaches to interoperability at the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) 2008.
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