Enable breadcrumbs token at /includes/pageheader.html.twig

Army Capability Sets to Morph as Unified Network Emerges

The service needs a new cybersecurity discussion with industry.

As the U.S. Army progresses toward a Unified Network of both enterprise and tactical capabilities, the technology capability sets will see changes, and the service will need a new dialogue with industry regarding zero trust and cybersecurity roles and responsibilities. U.S. Army photo

The U.S. Army’s capability sets of tactical command, control and communications technologies will continue to morph as the service fields the equipment to divisions rather than Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs), Army officials told reporters Monday.

The service is making progress toward integration of the tactical and enterprise networks and intends by October to merge the Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems and the Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical under the latter office, which will be renamed.

Capability sets delivered every two years are the service’s solution for keeping pace with changing technologies and achieving all-domain dominance. Each set builds off the previous capabilities. The 2023 capability set builds on advances in expeditionary capabilities and increases capacity, resiliency and convergence of the network, according to an Army fact sheet. It will increase bandwidth to support sensor data, graphics and video and will establish additional communication routes through satellites to provide multiple transport paths, improving resiliency. Units at the edge will have more agile computing environments because of access to a tactical cloud.

Additionally, mesh networking and hardened radios and other systems decrease vulnerabilities and susceptibility to jamming. Converged mission command applications, integrated intelligence data and an enhanced common operating picture ensure usable information supports warfighter decision-making, underpinned by timely and accurate data. This capability set helps to provide a more robust transport layer to support the requirements of the Army’s other modernization priorities, according to the fact sheet.

“While they are still the foundation of tactical network modernization, even those are going to morph because we're moving towards the division as the unit of action. The capability set construct will help us do planning. But the way that it's actually going to be fielded, it's going to be fielded from a divisional look not a BCT-centric look,” Army Lt. Gen. John Morrison, deputy chief of staff/G6 told reporters Monday.

Zero trust will be central to modernization efforts, he indicated. The Army has identified pieces to the zero-trust puzzle, such as identity management, and will focus first on those foundational elements. The service is “attacking” identity and credential access management in fiscal year 2023 and accelerating it as much as possible, he indicated and aims for “mission complete” on directory services and comply-to-connect capabilities in fiscal year 2024.

“It's very hard when you're trying to do this across the entire globe to break it into a capability set-like construct for the strategic and operational levels. By busting it down by the foundational actions that we've got to take, and then timing some of the broader modernization efforts—mainly to what we're trying to do with the Joint Region Service Stacks—we're able to sequence it in a way that makes a lot of sense and allows us to and allows us to build out this entire strategic and operational architecture,” Gen. Morrison said.

Service officials envision Army units capable of deploying around the globe and immediately plugging into the network. “Think about a formation that’s deploying from one theater to another and being able to rapidly plug in, get connected and fight upon arrival—things that we’ve talked about for many, many years, but now you’re starting to see it actually come to fruition, whether it’s in exercises or operations,” Gen. Morrison said. “I would submit to you that the days of the Army dragging its network along are over.”

The general also suggested the Army and industry need to open a new discussion regarding cybersecurity responsibilities because the service will use a mix of military and commercial technologies. “If you buy into this notion of zero-trust principles, our interaction with industry is going to be significantly different tomorrow than it is today. There's got to be a different discussion on cybersecurity because, quite frankly, the industry partner is going to be responsible for some things, and the United States Army is going to be responsible for some things. And we've got to be sharing with each other so that we clearly understand the risk each one of us are assuming or not.”