The United Kingdom's armed forces will be calling for communications based on capabilities rather than technologies, if the agency responsible for answering their calls is successful. This is the approach chosen for dealing with interoperability challenges, widespread legacy systems and the rapid introduction of new information technologies. The agency's challenges range from delivering a defensewide human resources software package to producing a coherent command and control software package for field commanders. Concurrently, long-extant systems must continue to serve the military as new capabilities are introduced. Tyrrell, the DCSA's deputy chief executive, notes that the commercial sector will play a key role in the agency's modernization efforts.
Defense is no longer at the technological cutting edge.
The problem that we have had over the past 15 to 20 years is that we have had a number of bespoke systems that have been very expensive and have not delivered that which we require. The commodore relates that British troops recently involved in the Sierra Leone crisis resorted to commercial telecommunications for emergency messaging. A soldier who was taken prisoner used his mobile telephone to call his wife and alert her to his situation. Tyrrell notes that the military always will have some legacy systems. Modern information technology is leaping generations in a matter of months, but the military cannot afford to replace large complex systems in any time period less than several years.