An expanded communications capability also allows for reachback. This is another priority because it allows the Corps to take more combat troops into a theater of operations while leaving some of the administrative and support capabilities behind. For example, reachback would allow commanders in the field to model and simulate war plans with intelligence and analysis personnel in the United States before committing to them in a conflict. One aspect of this capability is videoconferencing, which currently is available only to the Marine Corps at garrison and base sites and on carrier battle groups and larger naval vessels. He notes that the capability exists right now in the Corps, but it needs to be implemented widely.
Increased communications pose their own difficulties, however.
The vast amounts of data that battlefield information systems provide also can be a detriment. To avoid becoming swamped, data and information management practices must be put into place, the general states. He cites the Gulf War as an example of situations where intelligence reports would come in from various service headquarters. Up to 97 percent of the information in those reports was identical, with perhaps 3 percent of it actually being useful to the Marine Corps. Very often, those small differences were not noticed in all of the data, he observes.