TechNet builds network, partnership for the future

by Airman 1st Class Desiree Economides
374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

2/21/2013 - TOKYO, Japan  -- More than 450 people from the U.S. Department of Defense and technology industry came together for the 7th Annual Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association TechNet Tokyo Feb. 12 to 15, at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

"TechNet offered attendees the opportunity to get an insider's perspective from key military leaders and stay informed on information technology developments in the DoD across the Pacific," said Alan Joseph, 374th Communications Squadron deputy commander at Yokota Air Base, Japan, and president of AFCEA Tokyo.

Rear Adm. David Simpson, Defense Information Systems Agency vice commander, talked about the challenges facing the military in today's environment.

"Today's fight is here (in cyber). Are we prepared strategically, operationally, tactically to fight in cyberspace? The adversaries' goals will be non-traditional where his methods will be things we have not seen," Simpson said. "We are building information platforms, a cyber platform, which just doesn't have a commercial parallel. We are going to bring some asymmetric advantage we are accustomed to into that cyber battle space."

Though each of the four panels offered their own expertise in the theme of "Riding the Cyber Wave," two major notions evolved throughout the conference: Engaging with coalition partners on a bilateral and multilateral level and defending the cyber network.

"We have some challenges, but we have some unique opportunities as we look at the rebalance and the DPRI (Defense Policy Review Initiative) and the work we have with our coalition partners," said Linda Newton, Deputy Chief of Staff for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence and Command Information Officer for U.S. Pacific Fleet. "I believe we can define JIE (Joint Information Enterprise) into that larger standard that DoD has set on the U.S. side but we can drive that at the local level to make it work."

Working with host nation partners will continue well into the future to benefit both countries, said Col. Yvette Quitno, 5th Air Force director of intelligence and cyber operations.

"We see we have seen a great increase in information sharing, especially in cyber operations, with our Japanese partners, we see a lot more discussions on defense of the network and what that means," she said.