Signals (military)

Military communications or military signals involve all aspects of communications, or conveyance of information, by armed forces. Military communications span from pre-history to the present. The earliest military communications were delivered by humans on foot. Later, communications progressed to visual and audible signals, and then advanced into the electronic age. Examples from Jane's Military Communications include text, audio, facsimile, tactical ground-based communications, terrestrial microwave, tropospheric scatter, naval, satellite communications systems and equipment, surveillance and signal analysis, encryption and security and direction-finding and jamming.

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 (sometimes encoded to be unrecognizable). The first distinctive uses of military communications were called "signals". Modern units specializing in these tactics are usually designated as "signal corps". The Roman system of military communication (cursus publicus or cursus vehicularis) is an early example of this. Later, the terms "signals" and "signaler" became words referring to a highly-distinct military occupation dealing with general communications methods (similar to those in civil use) rather than with weapons.

Present-day military forces of an informational society conduct intense and complicated communicating activities on a daily basis, using modern telecommunications and computing methods. Only a small portion of these activities are directly related to combat actions.

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