military

Wargame Predicts Army Loses High Tech Edge

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ARMY WAR COLLEGE: A massive wargame held here this week to explore the “Deep Future” of warfare in the 2030s demonstrated a stark truth — one that Clausewitz enumerated in his famous work, On War — there’s no substitute for sheer numbers, no matter how much high technology the Army buys. That’s an unsettling answer at a… Keep reading →

A new technology with potential government applications could make computer mice and touch interfaces obsolete with the wave of a finger. Consisting of a small motion-sensing unit and software, the Leap Motion controller allows users to manipulate graphic images and other data with hand motions.

The Leap controller is the size of a smart phone and sits in front of a computer monitor where it detects hand or stylus motions in an eight cubic foot space in front of the monitor and converts them into motion in the form of manipulated graphics, game control data, robot control or many other types of interface manipulation. Keep reading →

Healthcare is experiencing an unprecedented transformation.

Motivated by the need to meet new regulatory requirements in the U.S., including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and to receive incentives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s (ARRA’s) Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provision, many healthcare providers are investing to modernize their legacy IT infrastructure and clinical applications. In addition to meeting compliance issues, these early adopters are discovering numerous advantages from their investment in IT – not only in cost savings, but also in improved patient care, tightened information security, advanced collaboration, increased transparency and trackability, and ‘connected care.’ Keep reading →

The word “drone” probably doesn’t make you think “fun” or even “useful.” After all, the most familiar unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is the hulking, weaponized, and sinisterly named Predator deployed by the U.S. military.

“The United States has built the most powerful military the world has ever seen, but we are not invincible. Information technology is a both an essential enabler of American power, but it is also our Achilles heel. And that’s why this project is so important,” said Virginia Congressman Jim Moran, referring to a new cybersecurity research center opened by L-3 and Virginia Tech in Arlington, Va., Oct. 5.

“Cyberspace is the soft underbelly of American power,” said Moran, who called the need for more effective solutions for cyberspace an “urgent national priority.” Keep reading →

Complexity is the name of the game in today’s high-volume identity environments.

“For larger organizations and in customer-facing environments, the quantity and size of datasets are increasing along with performance expectations and data diversity,” notes Gartner analyst Kevin Kampman in his recent report, “The Role of Virtual Directory and Synchronization Services in Large-Scale Identity Deployments.” Keep reading →

Dr. Barclay Butler, Director, DOD/VA Interagency Program Office

Since rebooting efforts nearly a year ago to merge their electronic health care management and record keeping systems, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs have made what top officials described as considerable progress after the program was in danger of slipping its schedule. Keep reading →

The U.S. Defense Department has accelerated its efforts to develop offensive cyber weapons that could be used to dismantle hostile military networks in countries where U.S. forces are operating, The Washington Post reported today.

The report cites the Pentagon’s growing frustration with the military’s inability to disable enemy air defense systems and other military communications networks in places like Libya, where U.S. pilots flew combat missions to protect civilian populations from attacks by the Libyan army. That frustration has reportedly led to a five-year, $500 million budget infusion for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon’s main research and development organization, to fast track research into offensive cyber tools. Keep reading →

When we hear that getting incentives right and letting the private sector lead or sharing more information will secure the nation, remember that we’ve spent 15 years proving this doesn’t work.

Some people say the threat is exaggerated. This is unfortunate. We are on course to repeat in cybersecurity the 9/11 error of ignoring risk. Keep reading →


For a number of years, there has been a certain relationship between different segments of the federal information technology market. But those relationships are changing as agencies have had to come to grips with stark new budget constraints, which are expected to be reflected in the new federal budget being released by the White House today.

Those changes are already having an important implications for the companies competing for federal IT contracts as well as for the federal and military leaders responsible for acquiring and operating the IT technologies that support their civil and military agency mission requirements.
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This article was adapted from introductory remarks made Feb. 13 at the 25th Annual Federal Networks by conference chairman, Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting. For more news and insights on innovations at work in government, please sign up for the AOL Gov newsletter. For the quickest updates, follow us on Twitter @AOLgov.
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