Letters from the editor: Transformation

It’s been nearly a decade since the word transformation was first used to describe the changes that the Defense Department was about to undertake.

Now we’ve gone through a transformation of our own.

Defense Systems magazine has a renewed focus and a new design. In the past few months, we’ve been working toward a relaunch of this magazine to align it with what’s become the permanent evolution of networkcentric warfare and the reality that blurs the lines between the logistics chain, the back office and the front lines.

Increasingly, the battlespace is networked. And at the same time, networks as a whole have become a battlespace, with cyberthreats now posing significant challenges to DOD’s ability to protect that network and threatening other infrastructure.

As Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson makes clear in his interview with contributing editor Barry Rosenberg, these aren’t single-service problems that will be solved by a single-service effort. The demands placed on the military have increased the need for a joint effort to lead the network revolution.

Each service will have to integrate its network warfare capabilities with the others and learn from the others’ experiences to succeed in the long term.

There are plenty of signs of growing collaboration among the services. At the Navy’s recent unveiling of the surface warfare mission package for its Littoral Combat Ship, the Army was part of the show. The Navy is adopting the Non-Line-of- Site Launch System missile, part of the Army’s Future Combat Systems project, for the ship. That sort of cross-pollination of technology is critical to accelerating the response to the ever-changing threats to our country’s security.

Defense Systems is trying to help with that. The mission of this magazine is to connect service communities and enhance awareness of what’s going on across DOD, in the defense industry and in the broader information technology industry to help connect people and ideas. In this magazine and with our upcoming redesigned presence on the Web, our goal is to become a toolbox for those involved in the defense IT and command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance communities — the net-centric warfare community.

And we could use your feedback. Let us know what you think of our transformation. Help us continue to transform so that we may better serve you.