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Trowbridge & Trowbridge LLC,* McLean, Virginia, is being awarded a $23,406,788 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide information technology, system adminis

Ushering in full-blown mobility for the military will require technology advances, particularly in areas of automation and security management. With mobile no longer a fringe idea, troops want to avail themselves of all the bells, whistles and efficiencies the ecosystem offers. But security concerns continue to crimp the Defense Department’s migration to what is otherwise commonplace in the private sector.

Cybersecurity can no longer be viewed as a technology-only problem and segmented into stovepipes where the U.S. Defense Department carries out one set of tasks; the civilian government another; and industry does its own thing, said Adm. Michael Rogers, USN, director of the NSA and commander of U.S. Cyber Command. “It must be viewed more broadly and must be tackled from a national security perspective,” Adm. Rogers said during a morning West 2017 presentation Thursday with Adm. James Stavridis, USN (Ret.), former NATO commander.

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. Unlike the dominance the U.S. military enjoyed for years in the conventional warfare realm, the lack of physical and geographic boundaries in cyberspace test modern warfighting doctrine, said Vice Adm. Marshall Lytle III, USCG, during a panel discussion at the West 2017 conference, co-sponsored by AFCEA International and the U.S. Naval Institute and taking place this week in San Diego.

Emerging cyber trends such as the rapid increase in the number of bad actors, increased capabilities and sophistication, and the high degree of automation complicates a key question posed to U.S. military leaders: Are the armed forces ready to fight? 

It is imperative that the United States—government and private companies alike—begin using its inherent innovative spirit to think exponentially and develop technologies that will save time, dollars and lives while defeating the nation's adversaries, said Adm. Harry Harris, USN, commander of U.S. Pacific Command. Exponential thinking were the buzzwords of his address and the cornerstone of what likely will help define the future of the U.S. military, he shared at West 2017. But getting there requires the powers that be to break paradigms that will take military forces to the next level.