Military communications
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Military communications or military signals involve all aspects of
The most urgent purposes are to communicate information to commanders and orders from them.Military communications span from pre-history to the present. The earliest military communications were delivered by runners. Later, communications progressed to visual and audible signals, and then advanced into the electronic age. Today, there are many perspectives used to examine how troops around the world communicate. The Word of Command: Communication and Cohesion in the Military by Anthony King states how Military sociologists have attempted to explain how military institutions develop and maintain high levels of social cohesion. Communication plays a crucial role in fostering social cohesion in the military, as it allows soldiers to build relationships, establish trust, and work together towards common objectives.
History
In past centuries communicating a message usually required someone to go to the destination, bringing the message. Thus, the term communication often implied the ability to transport people and supplies. A place under siege was one that lost communication in both senses. The association between transport and messaging declined in recent centuries.
The first military communications involved the use of runners or the sending and receiving of simple
Present-day military forces of an
Military communications equipment
In the middle 20th century
Military communications – or "comms" – are activities, equipment, techniques, and tactics used by the military in some of the most hostile areas of the earth and in challenging environments such as battlefields, on land (compare
In the modern world, most nations attempt to minimize the risk of war caused by miscommunication or inadequate communication. As a result, military communication is intense and complicated, and often motivates the development of advanced technology for remote systems such as satellites and aircraft, both crewed and uncrewed, as well as computers. Computers and their varied applications have revolutionized military comms. Although military communication is designed for warfare, it also supports intelligence-gathering and communication between adversaries, and thus sometimes prevents war.
The six categories of military comms are:
- alert measurement systems
- cryptography
- military radio systems
- nuclear command and control
- signal corps
- network-centric warfare
The alert measurement systems are various states of alertness or readiness for the armed forces used around the world during a state of war, act of terrorism or a military attack against a state. They are known by different acronyms, such as DEFCON, or defense readiness condition, used by the U.S. Armed Forces.
Cryptography is the study of methods of converting messages to a form unreadable except to one who knows how to decrypt them. This ancient military comms art gained new importance with the rise of radio systems whose signals traveled far and were easily intercepted. Cryptographic software is also widely used in civilian commerce.
Commercial refile
In United States military communications systems, commercial refile refers to sending a military message via a commercial
Commercial refiling of a message will usually require a reformatting of the message, particularly the heading.
This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22. (in support of MIL-STD-188).
A signal corps is a military branch, responsible for military communications (signals). Many countries maintain a signal corps, which is typically subordinate to a country's army.
Military communication usually consists of radio, telephone, and digital communications.
See also
- Jane's Military Communications
- Command and control
- Signal Corps (disambiguation)
- Telecommunications
- Communications protection
- Electronic warfare
- Signals intelligence (SIGINT)
- Defence Information Infrastructure
- Kiev Military Institute of Control and Signals
- Luftwaffe radio equipment of World War II
- Bowman (British Army communications system)
- Parakeet (Australian Army communications system)
- Military Wireless Museum in the Midlands
- Telegraph troops
Forms of signalling
- Military hand and arm signals
- Morse code
- Flag semaphore
- Flag signals
- Naval flag signalling
- Signal lamp
- Heliograph
- Radio communications
- Wireless telegraphy
References
- ^ Signal corps in Britannica.
External links