# Harnessing the Potential of Emerging Technologies to Break Down Barriers in Tactical Communications
## 3 Emerging Technologies as Potential Candidates: Overview
The unmanned aerial system (UAS) consists of a UAV or drone, a ground controller, and a communication system (usually RF) between two or more drones. The wide variety of UAVs can be classified according to various roles within the military area: UCAV, ISTAR, multipurpose, radar and communications relay, and finally, delivery and air supply. Each of these types of UAVs are explained below: 1. **Unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV)** This refers to aircraft that are highly maneuverable that engage in combat and even, provide precision weapons delivery to surface targets. 2. **Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR)** This is a system that uses UAVs to collect enemy information and locate targets and hostile airspace without risking the lives of soldiers. 3. **Multipurpose UAV** It is a combination of ISTAR and combat UAV. Its main function is the prohibition and carrying out of armed reconnaissance against critical and perishable targets. 4. **Radar and communications relay UAV** They are usually a hot air balloons with helium and air, used for the low-level surveillance system that uses aerostats as radar platforms. They also provide radio and television signals. 5. **UAV for delivery and air supply** These UAVs are designed for the precise delivery of small cargo items such as ammunition and food supplies for the Armed Forces. * **Situational awareness**: This is essential in tactical operations to anticipate possible complications that may occur during the mission in unknown scenarios and environments for military personnel that can result in catastrophe [34; 35; 36]. Therefore, it is important to train in this aspect in order to reduce the response time to any unexpected situation. Situational awareness can be increased through visual interface technologies worn by soldiers, such as thermal cameras, night vision goggles, or AR technology to train soldiers for unknown environments. By means of the combination of these technologies, soldiers can better understand their environments and make decisions faster. * **Trusted computing**: As the importance of data exchange increases, so does information security. Trusted computing is the key element of wearables to avoid exposing information to the enemy. This is a group of technologies, such as distributed learning, federated learning, SDN, and blockchain [37]. Distributed learning improves efficiency and performance, while federated learning complements and corrects the bottleneck of distributed learning. * **Edge computing**: This technology involves storing and processing data closer to the edge of a user's network and not through a centralized data center [38]. This is used mainly by IoT devices since they exchange large amounts of information. In this way, the data do not experience latency problems in real time, as this can affect the performance of the application. This technology is proposed for the military field as a generic architecture based on remote and distributed computing, which serves to assist in human assistance and disaster recover operations [39]. The main advantages of architectures with edge computing are as follows [40]:  
1. Users receive faster and more reliable services with low latency and high availability. 2. Avoid bandwidth restrictions, reduce transmission delays, and controls the transmission of confidential data. 3. Ability to aggregate and analyze big data in services, which makes it possible to make decisions quickly. In the case of the military sector, it is very useful since it is no longer necessary to wait for information from the central command to directly make decisions in an intelligent and safe way. * **Vision surveillance**: It is possible to increase the vision and vigilance abilities of the soldiers, thanks to the use of helmets and smart glasses or portable cameras. Thanks to these wearable sensors, soldiers can communicate information about individual situations in real time [41].