By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 16, 2014 – In the cyber domain of 2025, the
ability of military formations to operate offensively and defensively will be a
core mission set, and commanders will maneuver the capability much as they
maneuver ground forces today, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command said
recently.
Cybercom Commander Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers, who also is
director of the National Security Agency, was the keynote speaker at a June 12
meeting here at a cyber seminar hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army’s
Institute of Land Warfare.
The theme was Army Networks and Cybersecurity in 2025.
“In the world of 2025, I believe the ability of Army
formations to operate within the cyber domain, offensively and defensively,
will be a core mission set for the U.S. Army and its operational forces,”
Rogers told the audience. The Cybercom commander said that by 2025 the military
services will have ingrained into their culture the reality that networks and
cyber are a commander's business.
The admiral, who most recently served as commander of the
U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and the U.S. 10th Fleet, said this has been a major
cultural challenge in the Navy.
“In the year 2025, I believe … Army commanders will maneuver
offensive and defensive capability much today as they maneuver ground forces,”
Rogers said, adding that command and control, key terrain, commander's intent,
synchronization with the broader commander's intent, and a broader commander's
operational concept of operations will be cornerstones of Army cyber operations
by then.
“In 2025,” he said, “the ability to integrate cyber into a
broader operational concept is going to be key. Treating cyber as something so
specialized, … so unique -- something that resides outside the broader
operational framework -- I think that is a very flawed concept.”
Between now and 2025, Rogers said, a primary challenge will
be integrating cyber and its defensive and offensive capabilities into a
broader operational construct that enables commanders to apply another broader
set of tools in achieving their operational missions.
When he thinks about how Cybercom and the services will get
to 2025, Rogers said, he tries to keep three points in mind.
The first, he said, is that cyber is operations. Commanders
must own the cyber mission set, the admiral said, integrating it into the
operational vision and becoming knowledgeable about the broad capabilities of a
unit, formation or organization and its potential vulnerabilities.
“I think it's going to be foundational to the warfighting
construct of the future,” Rogers said, adding that the challenge is as much
cultural as technical.
“To make this work, in the end, it's about our ability to
synchronize the capabilities of a team,” he added, “from our junior-most
individuals to our senior-most individuals, from capabilities resident within
[the services] and as a department, to the [external] partnerships we're going
to have to form.”
The second point Rogers said he keeps in mind is that
requirements of the future include a joint network backbone for all of the
Defense Department.
“I never understood why Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps
and, arguably, our Coast Guard teammates … were spending a lot of time and
money [to independently] create, maintain, build and operate a global
communications backbone,” Rogers said. Instead, he added, “make the services
responsible for the last tactical mile of [a DOD-wide backbone that spans the
globe], down to mobile and tactical users, whether they're in a garrison
scenario or whether they're out maneuvering in the field, on an aircraft, on a
ship or in a squadron.”
The third point, Rogers said, is that people and
partnerships are key.
“Don’t ever forget that, in the end, [operationalizing
cyberspace by 2025] is all about people and partnerships,” the admiral said.
“It's about our ability to create a workforce that understands the vision, has
the tools and capabilities they need to execute this vision, and is integrated
into the broader effort.”
The partnership piece is a key area, he added, “because we,
the Department of Defense, are not the cutting edge when it comes to networks,
[communications] or information technology.”
“We are a user of technology that is largely generated by
individuals and organizations that reside outside the DOD. … I don't see that
trend changing between now and 2025,” he added.
As Cybercom commander and operational commander for the
cyberspace mission set, the admiral said, focusing on five Cyber Command
priorities will help military commanders build the joint force for 2025.
The priorities are:
-- Building a trained and ready operational cyber force;
-- Building a joint defensible network whose architecture
has core design characteristics of defensibility, redundancy and resilience;
-- Creating shared situational awareness in cyberspace;
-- Creating command and control and operational concepts for
use in cyberspace; and
-- Being mindful of policy and administrative changes needed
to operate in cyberspace.
Addressing the department’s ability to compete on the open
market for exceptional cyber talent, Rogers said, cyber is no different from
any other DOD mission in terms of going after talented individuals.
“If the view is that pay is the primary criteria to get
people with cyber expertise to join the department, I don't think that's going
to work for us,” he added. “We’ll compete because of what makes us different.
We will appeal to men and women who have an ethos of service [and] who believe
in the idea of being part of something bigger than themselves.”
“We're going to compete for the same people because, quite
frankly, we're going to give them the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a
way that you can't legally do on the outside,” he added, prompting chuckles
from the audience.
“I think we're going to do well,” the admiral said. “[Over
the past 10 years], we have exceeded my wildest expectations in terms of our
abilities to recruit and retain a high-end cyber workforce, because we’ve been
able to focus on why they want to be with us as opposed to why they don't want
to be with us.”
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