Washington ( CNN ) -- It 's a daunting assignment for an Army combat brigade at Fort Bliss , Oklahoma -- get all the military 's high-tech software , uplinks , phones , drones and computers to talk to each other . The goal of the Army is to fine-tune a global network to provide everyone , from commanders to frontline soldiers , the same information , quickly and seamlessly . `` The network will literally redefine how we fight in the same way that social media has changed the way we interact and communicate in our personal lives , '' Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said Monday . `` The network will change how we operate on the battlefield . '' Chiarelli said that over 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan , new equipment had been raced to the battlefield , some of it off the shelf . Now the task is to synchronize new and old equipment in a battlefield setting in the vast and rough terrain of Fort Bliss . That Army installation provides mountainous terrain and desert in an area the size of Connecticut . The testing by 3,500 to 4,000 members of the combat brigade will be the centerpiece of the Army 's modernization program , according to Chiarelli . `` It will make our various formations more lethal , faster and more survivable on today 's battlefield , '' he said in an hour-long question-and-answer session with journalists at the Pentagon . Already the Army is experimenting with smartphones , finding uses as diverse as monitoring the eye-in-the-sky , real-time video of drones , or transmitting pictures of the wounded to doctors miles away , or calling up biometric details of suspected insurgents stopped at checkpoints . Traditionally formal Army procurement programs could stretch eight years or longer , finally delivering a product to specifications that might already be years behind current technology . Now if the Army is able to integrate existing software into its network , then industry can regularly and quickly update the technology . `` Together we must we ensure have the most current technology available so that ultimately we may get it into the hands of our soldiers as quickly as possible , '' Chiarelli said . Over time the Army will be able to plan and buy equipment more efficiently . `` The Army will buy what it needs , when it needs it , for those that need it , '' Chiarelli said . `` This allows us to buy less , more often and incrementally improve the network capability over time . ''
A combat brigade at the Army 's Fort Bliss is on a technological mission . The soldiers are using drones to monitor enemy movements and identify targets for airstrikes, according to an official with knowledge of the program. `` The network will change how we operate on the battlefield , '' says a general .