Fears of enemy tampering could sideline new sensors.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: UPFRONT

The Army is preparing to begin testing new high-tech sensors designed to operate unattended, behind enemy lines.

But the project could hit a major roadblock because Pentagon officials fear that the global positioning system technology used in the sensors would be susceptible to enemy capture.

The sensors are part of the Army's overarching modernization project, the Future Combat Systems. They could be fielded as early as 2008 if the Army can get around an impasse with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, said Col. Michael Williamson, program manager of FCS network systems integration.

"We're having a little gunfight with OSD now ... because the type of GPS we want to use we can't leave unattended on the ground," Williamson said at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement forum.

FCS will employ manned and unmanned systems linked by a common network. The Army plans to roll out the technology in phases as it matures, rather than waiting for the entire system of vehicles, sensors and other combat gear to be fully developed.

The technology for unattended ground sensors is ready, Williamson said. Disagreement over whether they can be "unattended" as their name suggests, and therefore vulnerable to capture, is one sticking point. The FCS concept calls for the sensors to be fired, dropped or placed in forward positions, or behind enemy lines, to gather seismic and acoustic intelligence.

"OSD is engaged and we have a great dialogue with them. My issue is that you just have to tell me at some point before I go into production," Williamson told National Defense.

The codes and abilities of the U.S. military's version of the global positioning system differ from those found in the commercial marketplace. Commercial GPS technology could be used in the devices but would not be as accurate for targeting, Williamson said. Furthermore, a Joint Chiefs of Staff directive in 2002 prohibits the military from using less secure commercial GPS technology. Nonmilitary GPS is vulnerable to "spoofing," which is the transmission of false signals by enemies.

James Hasik, an Austin, Texas-based management consultant, and author of "The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future...