Click "Slideshow" to the left for PopSci's Iraq tech report card

The mission changes for Charlie Company seconds after the soldiers roll off the base. The dreary night patrol around Balad, a shambling Shi´ite town in north-central Iraq, has just been canceled. It´s time instead to hightail it west, to the Sunni neighborhood of Ad Duluiyah. â€Alpha Company is taking direct fire,†a voice crackles over the radio in First Lt. Brian Feldmayer´s Humvee. â€I need you to expedite."