Rick Kozak / Staff Lt. Gen. Michael Peterson is the U.S. Air Force’s chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer.

The U.S. Air Force continues to improve its ability to share battlefield information and intelligence across all branches of the U.S. military and with its coalition allies, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

Speaking at the 6th Annual C4ISR Journal Integration Conference, New Tools for War in Real Time, in Arlington, Va., Lt. Gen. Michael Peterson, chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, said the capabilities of information technology -- and its impact on military operations -- have evolved significantly since the first Gulf War in the early 1990s. What once took hours to plan and execute is accomplished now in minutes, he said.

Increasingly, Peterson said, less time exists between initial identification of a target and the final order to strike it. For example, he said, the June mission to kill al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi unfolded more quickly and more efficiently than the 2003 capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“When it was finally time to strike [Zarqawi],” Peterson said, “the F-16 [pilots] had no idea they’d be called over. They didn’t even know what they’d hit until later that afternoon.”

New capabilities are allowing U.S. forces to react faster to an attack as well, Peterson said. Consider a hypothetical mortar attack on a U.S. base in Iraq: If an F-15 flying overhead can spot the source of the attack, it can relay that information to a nearby Predator unmanned vehicle, which can track the enemy and alert ground troops to their location, he said. Just that quickly, an arrest can be made, he added.

“This is the type of work that is possible and is going on all the time,” Peterson said.

But with increased capabilities come increased risks, Peterson said. It’s essential, he said, that the U.S. and its allies keep a close eye on who’s using what technology – and how.

“We have to understand that if we can leverage [this technology], then any adversary out there can leverage it also,” Peterson said. “We have to understand how an adversary is using cyberspace, and we have to be prepared to take it away.”

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