Photos: War games test new battlefield tech

The CIWD demo is also testing out satellite-based communications. One of the U.K. trials is testing connectivity with the military's Skynet 5 satellite, which provides the military with ways to broadcast images and videos from the battlefield. The 2 billion pound ($3.9 billion) satellite system allows voice and video streaming, which can be used to, say, transfer high-quality medical images from the field to a U.K. hospital for analysis and diagnosis.

Skynet 5 also provides videoconferencing via a push-to-video system so that calls do not need to be set up in advance and a link can be established at the press of a button. Launched in March 2007, the Skynet 5 satellite was specifically designed for small military receivers.