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Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- Military officials and experts are characterizing Operation Iraqi Freedom as the most IT-intensive military campaign in history. The campaign, officials said, puts to the test a "network-centric warfare" strategy that has been under development since the first Persian Gulf War 12 years ago.
"There are more computers on the battlefield than ever before," said Col. Mark Bowman, operations officer for the U.S. Army's 11th Signal Brigade. In fact, there are so many computers involved in managing the modern battlefield that digital data networks have become more important to senior commanders than traditional voice networks, he said.
The deployable headquarters facility of the U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, was designed by Lexington, Mass.-based Raytheon Co. prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. However, as military tensions with Iraq began to rise, CENTCOM commander in chief Gen. Tommy Franks put the project into high gear.

U.S. Central Command's mobile headquarters facility, which was designed by Raytheon, at Camp As Sayliyah near Doha, Qatar.

Although Raytheon has been asked by the military not to divulge the specific IT systems in use, Computerworld has confirmed that the mobile headquarters facility includes a high-speed fiber-optic network backbone that can deliver video over IP to the desktop, as well as direct links to the hundreds of intelligence and surveillance systems and deployed forces in and around the Persian Gulf.
Video on the Battlefield
Col. Dan Gerstein, commander of the Army's 93rd Signal Brigade in Fort Gordon, Ga., said the integration of real-time video into the military's command and control operations marks a significant departure from the first Persian Gulf War. Although there was limited use of videoconferencing during Operation Desert Storm, ground forces today are making use of battlefield videoconferencing systems as they advance on Baghdad, said Gerstein.
What's enabling that is the U.S. Department of Defense's Global Broadcast Service (GBS), which provides massive amounts of bandwidth to allow tactical commanders to receive imagery and other data from CENTCOM headquarters or unmanned aerial vehicles, said Gerstein.
The $500 million GBS is based on commercial direct broadcast satellite technology and provides high-speed data connections of more than 24M bit/sec. to tactical computers equipped with antennas as small as 22 in. in diameter.
The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies is also being touted as a major improvement since Operation Desert Storm. Gerstein said some units are deploying GPS for "real-time situational awareness," allowing for the direct exchange of information among soldiers on the front lines, rather than requiring information to be routed