Despite advances, air strikes fall short of expectations.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: UPFRONT

NORFOLK, Va. -- The Joint Forces Command will launch a demonstration program this year to improve communications between the armed services and the intelligence communities. The goal is to decrease the time it takes to put bombs on elusive terrorist targets.

Pushing this program forward is the recognition that, despite enormous advances in technology, recent air campaigns have failed to score high-profile victories.

The command has identified 48 "communities of interest," composed of stakeholders who will tackle the problem of computers and communication systems that collect data, but cannot communicate with each other. The push to create a more "network-centric" ways to communicate has been a long-time goal in the Defense Department. The point-to-point means currently used stymies communication and prevents data from making its way into the hands of those who need it, officials have said.

The groups will identify their data sharing problems, determine what kind of information needs to be exchanged, and make it usable and accessible on web-based applications, said Leslie Winters, chief of net-centric information integration at JFCOM.

The "time-sensitive targeting" community will be the first to carry out a demonstration. Participants will be from any program that collects data on potential targets, as well as those tasked with delivering munitions, including the intelligence community. The ability to identify a target, and ensure that its location is accurately communicated to a shooter is a pressing need, said Rob Beardsworth, lead of the time-sensitive targeting community of interest at JFCOM.

"Today we have a different challenge," Beardsworth said at the NDIA net-centric operations conference. "We do not have well defined, well positioned targets. We have a very elusive, fleeting enemy including weapons of mass destruction, as well as terrorists."

In the war on terrorism, and the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, the Air Force is tasked with placing bombs on targets that may be on the move. In previous conflicts, it took days, and sometimes weeks between the identification of a target and the launch of an attack.

Pentagon officials have said that time-lag is decreasing. However, campaigns to take out Osama bin Laden, former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and senior Iraqi leaders mostly failed.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," was one such Iraqi target. Coalition officials initially claimed the general had been killed in...