Marines' future tech wish list includes powerful comms networks

The Marine Corps of the future wants comprehensive networks that can provide coverage from the ships that carry them into battle all of the way to the beaches they land on, software that can sift through mountains of data collected by sensors and machines that can scan faces in a crowd to alert them to possible insurgent threats, reports Spencer Ackerman at Wired's Danger Room blog.

The wish list of next-generation technologies is set forth in the Marine Corps' blueprint for its science and technology over the next two decades. The blueprint was first published by Inside Defense, the blog states.

This won't happen overnight, but the Marine Corps is taking the first steps. For example, it is already testing prototypes of long-range networks that would share text, voice, data and imagery from far offshore.