Army Speeds Information Warfare Detachments Creation

The U.S. Army is making final preparations to create information warfare detachments at the theater level.

“Army Cyber will take the civilian TDA [tables of distribution and allowance] and that will form the basis of a digital protection and reconnaissance center that will conduct targeting support and digital force protection tasks for the TIADs [theater information advantage detachments] when they stand up,” said Lt. Gen. Maria B. Barrett, commanding general, U.S. Army Cyber Command.

The creation of these units was scheduled for 2026, but the Army seems to be moving ahead of schedule.

“This really reflects the commitment of the Army to bring together an integrated team of cyber, EW [electronic warfare], signals, data systems engineers, io [information operations], intel and psyops,” Gen. Barrett told the audience at an event in Augusta, Georgia, on Thursday.

Gen. Barrett highlighted the growing significance of information warfare and cybersecurity in modern military strategy during the closing keynote of the TechNet Augusta conference. She emphasized the accessibility of advanced technologies like deep neural networks and AI, which can be exploited by adversaries to create deepfakes and manipulate public opinion, posing threats to national security. The discussion covered the need for the military to adapt to these evolving threats, with a focus on enhancing cyber and EW capabilities. The Army's initiatives include restructuring its cyber forces, developing new capabilities for information operations and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) to improve situational awareness and decision-making on the battlefield.

The urgency stems from the pivot from counterinsurgency operations in the past to dealing with peer adversaries employing a variety of means to disrupt defense.

“We realized that there were some holes in our swing, and that really began with the Army starting to build towards the capabilities that we need to face the threats that we're seeing today, and that was a really concerted effort to strengthen the EW enterprise that began with the approval of growth over the next 10 years of what would be 2,800 EW professionals across the Army,” Gen. Barrett said.

Gen. Barrett stressed that EW ties in with cyber, including operations at the edge.

A new doctrine, published in mid-2023, involves the creation of several units including active, National Guard and Reserve for multidomain information operations. It is updating operations at all levels, including Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, according to Gen. Barrett.

“We're also seeing attacks in cyber pick up; the attacks against the DIB [defense industrial base]. Either we're getting better visibility into them or they are on the increase. Attacks against operational technology have also gone up, critical infrastructure, and I would be completely remiss if I did not mention the PRC's [People's Republic of China] Volt Typhoon,” Gen. Barrett said.

Gen. Barrett saw anticipated network access, identified as living off the land, especially as it pertains to critical infrastructure, as a prepositioning for a future aggression.

To hunt and defend from this series of malicious attacks, her command leverages AI.

“That was the initiative behind a prototype, which we call Panoptic Junction, designed to reduce the complexity of analysts that we have looking for hard-to-find adversary activity, like living off the land, TTPs [tactics, techniques, and procedures], but using the data that we have, and we have plenty of it,” Gen. Barrett said.

Panoptic Junction will help her command identify and counter malicious actions by leveraging data and expertise to train AI as a force multiplier.

“This is going to be a home renovation that's going to be going on for a while. We're going to be moving a lot of walls, and as we lay in those capabilities, we're going to go out and make sure that they're implemented correctly and that people understand their role in that picture,” Gen. Barrett concluded.

SIGNAL Media is part of AFCEA International, TechNet Augusta's organizer.