"Chad Irby" wrote in message
om...
In article ,
"Kevin Brooks" wrote:

A good, reliable, and discrete IFF for ground units will be
wonderful, but I am not holding my breath while waiting for it to be
fielded.

We're still waiting for a good, reliable portable communications system
that can be used across all services, can't be easily intercepted, and
doesn't use up batteries at an insane rate.

What are the odds that we'll get good IFF or smart UCAVs before we get
radios that work even as well as a typical cell phone?

DARPA has been working on the battery problem. They're developing a small
diesel generator which is the same size as a SINCGARS battery pack
(including the fuel tank). The tank can be topped up with diesel at any time
and the assembly has about 4X the endurance of the battery it replaces. The
DG proper is a 1 inch cube.