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A panel of cyber educators today encouraged subject matter experts in the military and industry to teach cybersecurity part time.

The panel enthusiastically embraced the suggestion from an audience member at the AFCEA Cyber Education Research and Training Symposium on May 11 in Augusta, Georgia.

The U.S. Army in the past 30 days kicked off 10 Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps focused specifically on students interested in cyber careers. The service also has offered the first direct commission to a lieutenant colonel in the cyber realm and will soon do the same for a full colonel.

Brig. Gen. Paul Craft, USA, commandant, U.S. Army Cyber School, told the audience at the AFCEA Cyber Education Research and Training Symposium (CERTS) in Augusta, Georgia, that the new Junior ROTC efforts are important for the Army and for the nation. “That’s a big thing for the U.S. We now have multiple focused Cyber Junior ROTC programs in our nation, and they will expand over time.”

The United States needs to add computer skills to elementary education, and the military needs to broaden its cyber training. That was the gist of the message from Brig. Gen. Paul Stanton, USA, commander, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence, during his opening remarks on the first day of the AFCEA Cyber Education, Research and Training Symposium (CERTS), May 9, in Augusta, Georgia.

The Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) is planning a cyber workforce development summit that could take place as early as June, and it could be accompanied by a White House strategy on cyber workforce development, reports Joyce Corell, senior technical advisor to the national cyber director.

The ONCD was formed on January 1 of last year under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. It was initially recommended by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a panel authorized by Congress.

ONCD officials are working with the secretaries of labor, education and homeland security as well as congressional offices and other “government stakeholders” on the workforce development summit, Corell reported.

The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) intends to double down on the security of its classified networks in the coming months as it experiments with the zero-trust prototype known as Thunderdome.

Julian Breyer, DISA’s senior enterprise and security architect, reported a change in priorities while discussing Thunderdome during a panel session at AFCEA’s TechNet Cyber conference in Baltimore, April 26.

In a March 29 telephonic roundtable discussion with reporters, U.S. Army officials provided additional details about the service’s technology priorities in the 2023 budget request that reduces research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) dollars by 5.5 percent from 2022.

The Army released its $178 billion budget request Monday. The overall request includes a modest increase of $2.8 billion over the 2022 appropriations and balances current readiness and the continued transformation toward the Army of 2030 as the service strategically pivots from two decades of focus on counterterrorism to an Army ready to meet the challenges posed by more sophisticated adversaries, such as Russia and China, Army officials say.

The U.S. Department of Defense might learn a thing or two about the software-defined world from non-defense industry companies such as Netflix and Mazda, Jason Weiss, chief software officer, U.S. Defense Department, recently suggested to the AFCEA Cyber Committee.

Weiss, who serves on the committee, relayed an incident from Mazda that he said keeps him up at night. The incident was reported by BBC News in a February 10th article.

The U.S. Army for the first time has demonstrated during its Network Modernization Experiment the integration of three capability cards—one for positioning, navigation and timing, another for mounted mission command, and a third for the TSM tactical communications waveform. The capabilities are associated with the service’s open suite of standards and were integrated onto a Stryker combat vehicle.

The Joint All-Domain Command and Control Cross-Functional Team (JADC2 CFT)  is adding a sixth working group to examine and resolve data transport issues and also intends to develop a scorecard to help assess how well systems conform to the Defense Department’s joint all-domain warfighting goals.

Brig. Gen. Robert Parker, USA, deputy director, J-6, and JADC2 CFT chair, broke the news on both fronts during a keynote presentation at the TechNet Cyber conference in Baltimore, and during an exclusive interview with SIGNAL Magazine following his presentation.

The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is assessing the possibility of using process automation bots to perform a variety of mundane tasks, saving substantial time for the agency’s human employees.

The agency has been working with robotic process automation (RPA) tools for about three years for finance-related tasks and is now assessing the use of automation bots for other purposes, according to Stephen Wallace, DISA’s chief technology officer and director of the agency’s Emerging Technologies Directorate.

As part of its effort to modernize the fires mission thread, the U.S. Army is overhauling two systems critical to providing sensor data to weapon systems to more effectively engage battlefield targets.

Those two systems are the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and the Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System (JADOCS), which will be replaced by the Joint Targeting Command and Coordination System (JTC2S). The updated systems will provide critical information to weapon systems through the data fabric being developed under the Rainmaker project.

As China, Russia, the United States and others race to gain an advantage with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, quantum-enabled AI may be the next evolution, according to a panel of experts at the August 16-19 AFCEA TechNet conference in Augusta, Georgia.

The panel of women experts included moderator Carrie McLeish, director of federal capture, SANS Institute; Maj. Gen. Johanna Clyborne, ARNG, deputy commanding general, ARNG U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence; Arlene Espinal, vice president, Analytics, Automation, AI and Innovation Capabilities Office, ManTech; and Gokila Dorai, assistant professor, School of Computer and Cyber Sciences.

The U.S. Defense Department has entered the first phase of delivery on a sweeping capability known as Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), a once-in-a-generation modernization of the military’s approach to commanding forces.

Department officials aim to deliver a minimal viable product that includes an array of capabilities, such as a fundamental platform, identity control access management, zero-trust cybersecurity and data transport capabilities, according to Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall, USMC, director for command, control, communications and computers/cyber and chief information officer, Joint Staff/J-6. Once the minimal viable product, also known as an MVP, is in place, the department can continue to add capabilities.

In order to make the unified network vision a reality, the Army will need to adopt an array of technical capabilities, including 5G, zero trust cybersecurity, software-defined networks and data fabric.

The U.S. military services may take slightly different paths to achieving information advantage but will likely reach their desired destinations, according to Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, USA, commander, U.S. Army Cyber Command.

Gen. Fogarty made the comments during a morning keynote presentation on the second day of AFCEA’s TechNet Augusta conference in Augusta, Georgia.

Within this decade, commanders of combat units will have to plan and execute information activity, according to Army officials speaking at the August 17-19 AFCEA TechNet Augusta conference in Augusta, Georgia.

Appearing via video, Lt. Gen. Ted Martin, USA, commander, Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, said the new doctrine being drafted “as we speak” by Army officials “is forcing us to move into the future, and part of that future is information advantage.”  

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Subterranean Challenge, an effort to develop robot technologies capable of performing underground, is expected to host its final contest next month, but the program has advanced robotics technology that already are being used.

The program aims to develop technologies to rapidly map, navigate and search complex underground environments such as human-made tunnel systems, urban undergrounds and natural cave networks. The challenge run by the agency commonly known as DARPA might be described as two challenges in one since it focuses both on physical and virtual robot technologies.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) will release a new threat-based strategy very soon and is undergoing a reorganization to create a Directorate for Global Integration, says Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, USA, the agency’s director.

“We have some changes at DIA that are cooking right now. The first is a new strategy. That is a strategic approach that includes intelligence advantage, a culture of innovation, allies and partnerships, and an adaptive workforce,” he says.

Rear Adm Hugh Wyman Howard III, USN, commander, Navy Special Warfare Command, made the case today that keeping a combat-ready active-duty force in reserve for combat or contingency operations around the world will provide opportunities for greater experimentation with tactics, techniques and procedures.

“[We’re] very focused now on the fleets, key operational problems, and how we can be distinctive in providing support to the fleet in the strategic competition continuum but also in crisis and conflict ... .”—RADM Wyman Howard, USN, cdr, NSWC#WEST2021

If the United States is going to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to maintain a technological advantage, data science capabilities are a must, says Maj. Gen. Maria Barrett, USA, commander, U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM).

Gen. Barrett made the remarks while serving on a panel of women cyber leaders on the final day of the AFCEA TechNet August Virtual Event Series, held May 18-19.

Over the next couple of years, the U.S. Army will experience a significant shift in its approach to network modernization and will progress toward a unified network for both enterprise and tactical purposes, according to Lt. Gen. John Morrison, USA, the service’s deputy chief of staff, G-6.

Gen. Morrison made the comments earlier today during the TechNet Augusta Virtual Solutions Series. “That unifying architecture is something that the Army is working very, very hard on. Over the next two years, we will make a shift in the way that we’ve been approaching our modernization efforts,” Gen. Morrison stated.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which is responsible for providing intelligence on foreign militaries, is prepared in the coming weeks to release a new capability for the Machine-assisted Analytic Rapid-repository System (MARS). The new module, known as Order of Battle, will provide insights into foreign military forces.

The Joint Communications Support Element (Airborne), which stays on standby to deploy anytime and anywhere within 72 hours, is modernizing for multi-domain operations.

With a new Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) strategy document wending its way through the Pentagon, multiple high-ranking officers indicate that complex networks and related policies related remain the top impediment to working with allies and partner nations.

The strategy is being spearheaded by Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall, the director of command, control, communications, computers/cyber, and the chief information officer for the Joint Staff, J-6. According to Brig. Gen. Robert Parker, USA, J-6 deputy director for the Joint Staff, the document has been sent to the chief of staff and vice chief of staff for approval and could land on the desk of the secretary of defense in the coming days or weeks.