IT HAS been three weeks since the Ellisian army invaded next-door Attica. The United States, Attica's ally, quickly deployed troops to help re-establish the international border, and had advanced more than 50 miles by May 16th. The mission, however, was not an easy one. As well as facing rugged terrain and extreme weather, the American soldiers and Attican security forces had to contend with the radical Islamic Congress of Attica, the transnational Islamic Brotherhood for Jihad, the malicious hackers of the Wolf Brigade and the petty criminals of the area. Thank heaven it was, in fact, a staged exercise, running from Fort Bliss, in west Texas, through to the White Sands missile range, an army base in New Mexico. Some 3,800 soldiers and several thousand military and civilian personnel were taking part in this spring's Network Integration Evaluation (NIE), the third round of a new twice-yearly series of exercises. Their point is to test how well fancy new mapping and messaging systems would stand up to the stresses of conflict in harsh conditions. The White Sands missile range, which dates from the 1940s, sprawls over 3,000 square miles of New Mexico. But it is not as isolated as the cacti and coyotes suggest. The army manages the area's frequency spectrum, in addition to its land and air space. The air force and the navy have a presence there too (the navy has a landlocked "ship" for testing purposes), as do federal agencies like NASA and the odd passing film crew. Fort Bliss, meanwhile, is one of the country's biggest army posts, a fact which draws private contractors and researchers to the region. Colonel Dave Miller, deputy director of the army's brigade modernisation command, explains that military communications systems have sometimes lagged years behind those in the commercial world. Surprising, perhaps, given that both the internet and GPS began as Pentagon experiments; but when it comes to acquisitions, the services are often hampered by long budgeting cycles and byzantine contracting procedures. The NIE, then, is part of the army's new "Agile" process. The idea is to bring in prototypes from the private sector, so that soldiers, new and experienced, can give them a spin. If a system is no better than the old version, or if a new radio tends to get jammed with sand, the army can scrap the order or retool it. One of the items being tested last week was the Nett Warrior, a sort of rugged smartphone. An earlier version of the device had been on order last year, but was postponed when officials realised that it was much heavier, more expensive and not noticeably better than something that could be bought off the shelf. Systems that pass muster, however, can be fast-tracked. As a result, acquisitions should be faster, fewer and shrewder - saving money, but also making the army more efficient. Not that too much trust should be placed in technology. "None of these electronic tools replaces human judgment or experience, period," says Colonel Dan Pinnell, commander of the First Armoured Division's second brigade, who led the mission to restore Attica's border. But better to have today's smart system than a dumber one from five years ago.