Technologies only go so far for Air Force ground operators.

Air Force combat controllers--covert troops trained to operate deep in hostile territory--have seen an avalanche of new communications and targeting systems come their way.

While these digital systems are a marked improvement over the hard copy maps and compasses controllers had in Vietnam, they are not always user friendly, operators say.

Combat controllers' basic gear comes in what is called a "battlefield air operations kit," which includes a laser designator, scope, thermal imager and rangefinder. When the controller spots a target, he employs a global positioning system receiver to pinpoint the exact location, which then shows up on a rugged laptop superimposed over a map. Using specially designed software, the controller transmits the target data to the commanders who decide to destroy the target and pass the order to the appropriate aircraft.

The Air Force has tried to reduce the weight of the BAO kit. When they went into Afghanistan in 2001, some carried 160 pounds of gear. Since then, the service has introduced a lighter battlefield airman operations kit, including a radio, wearable computer, targeting device, weapon, portable drone and clothing. The weight is down to 75 pounds.

For some controllers, however, the technology falls short in areas such as ease-of-use and interoperability with other systems, says one Air Force combat controller who served in Afghanistan and currently works at the Air Force Special Operations Command headquarters in Hurlburt Field, Fla. He asked that his name not be disclosed.

"We need neutral interfaces, interoperability, ease of use and simplicity," he said. "If it is easy to use, yet still effective, the ground operator won't have to waste time getting the technology to work for him ... Sometimes simplicity is beautiful." He identified the radio as the controller's most powerful tool.

In the early phase of the conflict in Afghanistan, instances of friendly fire prompted the Air Force to fix equipment interoperability gaps that would result in U.S. aircraft dropping bombs on the wrong location because they didn't have the correct coordinates.

The service hired Mitre Corp. to develop a "cursor on target" technology that would automate the transfer of targeting information from ground troops' computers to the cockpit.

Rich Byrne, of Mitre Corp, explains that the target information is fused from a laser range finder, a compass, and a GPS receiver and then sent--as data, not voice--to an intelligence system to be refined. From there, the data is relayed over another radio (Link 16) to a fighter aircraft to be automatically downloaded to onboard precision-guided munitions. Throughout the flow, no humans transcribed, typed, or voiced the coordinates, Byrne wrote in a Mitre report.

The cursor on target, he said, has been coded for about a dozen and a half systems, enabling all of them to pass targeting as well as friendly troop location information to each other. "It is key to note that none of these data flows were considered in the original designs of each system, but were easily enabled because of the common net-centric information sharing strategy used."

The success of the technology, nevertheless, has not solved every difficulty that combat controllers encounter when it comes to exchanging data with other services.

The Defense Department has made this a high priority, the AFSOC controller said. "There is guidance to achieve interoperability but the process needs to grow and catch up with itself. Everyone wants it. We just need to get there."

He said the greatest obstacles to interoperability are "education and awareness." The stovepipes are engrained, he added. "It takes a while to train to things and get it institutionalized."

Air Force combat controllers, meanwhile, increasingly are finding that their work involves more than combat.

"It's not just dropping bombs," he said. "It's also opening up the runway at the New Orleans airport after Hurricane Katrina.

"Special tactics ran landing zones all over Louisiana to recover people who were stranded ... It's important to recognize that a capability developed for combat can be utilized for humanitarian relief."