Pentagon Studying The Effect Of The Internet On The Military

April 17, 2006 9:01 p.m. EST

Matthew Borghese - All Headline News Staff Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Pentagon's Defense Science Board will study the military implications of Internet search engines, online journals and "blogs."

Officially, it will be a study on "Information Management for Net-Centric Operations," as it was requested by Kenneth Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics and a former Defense Science Board member himself.

Krieg notes the military's ever-increasing reliance on these networks, saying, "Our increasing ability to leverage information and networking will be a critical enabling factor in developing better ways to work with others in the [U.S. government] and with both coalition and nontraditional partners as we, collectively, undertake the challenging missions of the 21st century."

"As information becomes more critical to military operations, the military will need to ensure it has the information networks needed to meet future challenges."

The study should prove informative, if the internet has really become what Krieg calls, "the lifeblood of military and civil-military operations."

In fact, Krieg adds, "'Googling' and 'blogging' are making their way into military operations at all levels."

"But the full implications of this revolution are as yet unknown, and we have no clear direction and defined doctrine."