information warfare

Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, has been awarded a $14,756,832 cost-per-fixed-fee contract for the research and development of a prototype semantic forensic system that automatically detects, attributes and characterizes falsified, multi-modal media assets to defend against large-scale, automated disinformation attacks and supports a variety of potential transition partners. The scope of this effort is to design, develop, evaluate and refine a semantic forensics system capable of implementation on a number of local and cloud computing architectures for a variety of end users. Work will be performed in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and is expected to be completed October 2024.

The U.S. Air Force’s new information warfare Numbered Air Force (NAF), the 16th Air Force, stood up in October, reached full operating capability yesterday, reported its commander, Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, USAF. The 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), which includes 10 wings, is the center of the Air Force’s cyber operations; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities; electronic warfare and information operations.

Failure in just one of a troika of military disciplines will doom the Navy in future combat operations, said a panel of experts. The Navy and the Marine Corps will need to tap their best potential expertise and resources to guarantee the success of manning, training and equipping the force.

For the last year, the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command has aggressively pursued revamping its organization to combat increasing threats, including cyber threats. The command is looking at how to unite its traditional air component capabilities with cyber mastery and provide its piece of Joint All Domain Command and Control, or JADC2.

These abilities are key especially as threats from adversaries are “only increasing in scope and scale,” said Lt. Gen. Christopher "Wedge" Weggeman, USAF, deputy commander, Air Combat Command (ACC), speaking at AFCEA Rocky Mountain Chapter’s Cyberspace Symposium 2020 in Colorado Springs on February 4.

The U.S. Air Force is in the process of standing up a new Numbered Air Force (NAF) within the Air Combat Command, which will bring together the service’s information warfare capabilities.

Last year, the service announced it was moving its 24th Air Force, which specializes in cyber operations, and its Cyber Mission from the Air Force Space Command to the Air Combat Command. The Air Combat Command (ACC) is in the process of merging those cyber components with its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities from the 25th Air Force, which will all be under the new Information Warfare NAF, explained Gen. Mike Holmes, USAF, commander, ACC during an Air Force Association breakfast event on August 23.

Nathan Kunes Inc.,* San Diego, California, is awarded a $13,681,778 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for development, implementation and testing of computer network defense measures; development of wireless computing security, cross-domain solutions, and vulnerability assessments; and system and security engineering to evaluate commercial information assurance products. This two-year contract includes one three-year option which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to an estimated $35,236,186. All work will be performed in San Diego, California. The period of performance of the base award is from May 7, 2019, through May 6, 2021.

Kros-Wise Inc.,* San Diego, California, is awarded a $9,382,074 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee multiple award contract for professional and administrative support services to support Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific (NIWC Pacific) corporate operations.  Support includes total force manpower management; material control; travel services; facilities operations; data management and visualization; and general administrative support. This is one of three multiple award contracts. All awardees will have the opportunity to compete for task orders during the ordering period. This two-year contract includes two, two-year option periods which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to

The newly created Cyber and Non-Kinetic Operations Division within the Air Combat Command is expected to reach full strength this summer. The new organization integrates multiple missions, including cyber, electronic warfare, intelligence and information warfare.

Months after initiating a project to research and rapidly field information warfare-related technologies, the U.S. Navy has expanded the effort servicewide and expects to field the first system by the end of fiscal year 2019.

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Systems Center Atlantic announced last summer the formation of an industry consortium for the Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP). The intent is to leverage the flexible contracting platform known as other transaction authority (OTA) to rapidly develop and deploy technologies.

Grove Resource Solutions Inc.,* Frederick, Maryland (N6523619D4800); Millennium Corp., * Arlington, Virginia (N6523619D4801); SimVentions Inc.,* Fredericksburg, Virginia (N6523619D4802); BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc., Rockville, Maryland (N6523619D8403); Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia (N6523619D4804); CACI NSS Inc., Reston, Virginia (N6523619D4805); General Dynamics Information Technology, Fairfax, Virginia (N6523619D4806); Leidos, Reston, Virginia (N6523619D4807); Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Redondo Beach, California (N6523619D4808), and Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia (N6523619D4809), are each awarded a combined $898,000,000 multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, performan

The U.S. Army’s efforts to bring electronic warfare, information warfare and cyber capabilities into expeditionary forces is succeeding, Army leaders report. To better support tactical commanders, the service developed a pilot program in 2015 to add such capabilities to brigade combat teams (BCTs). In addition to providing equipment, abilities and authorities to BCTs, the service deployed cyber electromagnetic activities (CEMA) teams to support the initiative known as CEMA Support to Corps and Below (CSCB). The CEMA teams, under the guidance of the U.S. Army Cyber Command, provide training to brigade combat teams (BCTs) through National Training Center (NTC) rotations at exercises and home-base training.

Advanced Technology International (ATI) of Summerville, South Carolina, was awarded a $100,000,000 expenditure-based other transaction authority (OTA) to help manage the Navy's Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP) Consoritum. ATI’s contract work managing the consortium will expire in June 2021. Work will be performed in Summerville and other locations depending on the prototype project awards, DOD reported. Fiscal year 2018 research, development, test and evaluations funds will finance the prototype project awards under the OTA. No funds were obligated at the time of award. The contract is incrementally funded; the monies will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

The U.S. Army may be catching up to adversaries in the information warfare domain, but the pace of change remains a challenge.

“The biggest [capability] gap we have is keeping pace. It is very much a cat-and-mouse game. When you have a cat-and-mouse game, you see a lot of change, so we try to anticipate things,” says Gary Blohm, who directs the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

One does not have to look too far beyond the headlines to see that the battle for world power is playing out in the information space. Free and open democratic societies increasingly are tested by rising autocratic countries employing high technology in information warfare.

For the United States to succeed in this battle, citizens, not just the government, need to be more discerning about information, experts say.

U.S. Navy personnel with advanced skills in information warfare may be ready to hit the decks and deploy across the fleet by year’s end.

Adding those adept information warriors to the fleet is a top priority for the commander of the Naval Information Warfighting Development Center (NIWDC), which was established about a year ago. Similar to other warfighting development centers, the NIWDC mission includes training and assessing forces in advanced tactics, techniques and procedures at the individual, unit, integrated or advanced and joint levels.

The U.S. Defense Department must move aggressively to better understand information warfare and its implications to national security. To propel the necessary next steps, the department must organize information resources not only to meet military cyberspace requirements but also to address how adversaries view U.S. cyber assets.

Although the nation has long dominated the communications and information systems landscape, past success makes it vulnerable in the future. Consequently, forces and the weapons platforms they rely on are increasingly susceptible to information attacks.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announced it is stepping up efforts to combat the risks of adversarial influence campaigns against American democracy. Together with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI, the ODNI will give a classified briefing to election officials in every U.S. state on February 16 and 18.

The mind of society is the battlefield in the current global struggle for geopolitical domination. The uses of soft power dominate in this battle and information warfare is the name of the game—not “cyber war” in all the ways it has been described but the influence and ultimately control of individual minds that, like cells in a body, make up the Mind of Society. Then control is used as leverage to achieve objectives that are often hidden.

Information warfare is an aggressive game of soccer where not only are all the fans on the field with the players, but no one is wearing uniforms.

#Cyberwarfare is like a soccer game with all the fans on the field with you & no one is wearing uniforms, Vice Adm. Lytle #WEST2017

— Sandra Jontz (@jontz_signalmag) February 22, 2017