CHAMPAIGN -- The U.S. Army is financing a new research center at the University of Illinois to develop technology for computer networks used on battlefields and in other similarly difficult environments.

The university says the Army will spend $16.75 million to set up the new Information Network Academic Research Center.

Computer scientists and others from Illinois, the University of California-Santa Barbara and other schools, as well as IBM, will work at the center.

The new center is part of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Network Science Collaborative Technology Alliance. Scientists from around the country work in the alliance on problems raised by using computer networks under tough conditions.