TAMPA, Florida — Guns, bombs, drones and artificial intelligence tend to steal today’s headlines.

But there’s another side — albeit a much less sexy one — to the world of U.S. Special Forces, one that’s central to accomplishing missions quickly, effectively and safely.

From trailer-mounted shelters to flashlights, from mobile command centers to data-protection apps, the technology on display here at the recent Special Operations Forces Week convention forms the backbone of the capabilities that America’s most elite fighting forces depend on.

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Across the sprawling convention center floor were examples of cutting-edge products that may not necessarily appear all that exciting to an outside observer, but military officials say they represent the kind of nuts-and-bolts innovation that has kept U.S. Special Forces and their private industry partners a step ahead of their adversaries.

“We need to think differently and we need to move faster. … SOF knows how to do that better than anyone else,” Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience here during his keynote speech.

Consider, for example, the humble flashlight.

Flashlights are a mainstay in virtually every home in America, and now at the tips of our fingers with built-in flashlight apps on most smartphones. But industry insiders are quick to point out the irreplaceable role that flashlights, from the handheld versions to those mounted on helmets or weapons, play during military missions.

“In a rescue situation, if you’re on the ground or in a collapsed building … light is hope,” said Matt Baker, director of military and federal sales for the company Streamlight, based in Eagleville, Pa.

In an interview on the convention floor, Mr. Baker demonstrated several of his company’s products, including the so-called “Moonbeam” anglehead flashlight issued to Marines at the outset of their training.

“It’s just part of the culture,” he said. “Baked in at Day One of boot camp is a flashlight.”

Mr. Baker offered other examples, such as how Special Forces or other military personnel routinely use lights to communicate, or to signal to aircraft overhead, or to indicate wind direction on the ground.

The flashlight has been central to basic preparedness among U.S. troops for decades. But other behind-the-scenes technology has a more modern feel.

War and smartphones

Jared Shepard, an Army veteran and president and CEO of Hypori, said his Reston, Va.-based company offers military personnel a secure way to access sensitive information on their own personal cell phones or tablets — without compromising national security.

The company’s approach, he said, centers on giving users a secure window, through their own device, to information stored in the cloud. Mr. Shepard said that approach to data security enables users to access the information they need without it ever actually being present on their own devices, protecting the information from adversaries or hackers.

“I assume the device has malware on it, it has bad-acting platforms of some kind, whether you know it or you don’t know it,” he told The Washington Times. “What I enable you to do is access a secure environment,” such as the government’s Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network, or NIPRNet.

“I’m going to enable you to access that environment and manipulate data in that environment, but never actually be in possession of that data,” he said. “That way, you can’t lose it. Your device can’t compromise it, and it can’t be — I don’t want to say hacked, because everything can be hacked — but it can’t ultimately be intercepted or be used against the government.”

Keeping data safe is one piece of the equation. Another is ensuring that the data can be shared quickly and easily from one corner of the battlefield to another. General Dynamics Information Technology says that its Raven 2 enhanced mobile command center does just that.

The impressive-looking command center was parked outside the Tampa convention center here throughout the week-long event. The company explains that the Raven “enables the rapid collection and dissemination of data and insight from the tactical edge, directly to users, and back to the enterprise, significantly increasing the speed of mission impact.”

In layman’s terms, the mobile command center helps to process data in real time on the field of battle.

“Data is exponential now. It’s growing so much. You can’t wait until the next day to get the latest imagery” from a drone or another source, said Dale Hogan, a senior program director with the company.

“And that’s what this truck does. It brings continual connectivity wherever you are in the world,” he said.

At an even more elemental level, U.S. Special Forces personnel need shelters that can be set up quickly and easily in forbidding terrain. Jeff Lindstrom, AOR west manager for the company Weatherhaven, said his company’s TRECC-T trailer-mounted expanding shelter was designed to meet that need.

The shelter, which the company says can be set up by two people in under five minutes, can be used as a command-and-control center, a medical facility, mobile office space, or serve a host of other functions that American forces might need on the battlefield.

“When it’s time to move, you can pack up quickly and displace it to wherever your next location needs to be, all the while being relatively unseen,” he said.

Like thousands of others on the convention floor here, Mr. Lindstrom said his company’s products may not grab as much attention as a next-generation drone or a groundbreaking AI tool. But he said they’re equally important to mission success, if not more so.

“All of that other stuff is neat. Everybody loves to watch it on YouTube, the guns and explosions,” Mr. Lindstrom said. “But this is the dirty end of the stick. This is where everything is being planned and executed.”