Army Modernizes With an Eye Toward Defensewide Efforts

The U.S. Army is working to team with industry and the other services to update its information technologies amid a greater emphasis on cyber. A multiyear plan establishing short- and long-term goals serves as the campaign map, but obstacles remain if the Army is to achieve its aims.

Challenges include integrating cyber and signal in a way that does not reduce the effectiveness of either key discipline. New commercial technologies must be incorporated early in their development and more quickly. And the new networking environment must be secure and interoperable with the rest of the Defense Department’s networks.

Lt. Gen. Robert S. Ferrell, USA, is the Army’s chief information officer (CIO)/G-6. “Our modernization effort is not solely about the Army—it’s about the Defense Department,” he says. “My relationship with my Defense Department partners is important because my investments really impact their investments and impact the interoperability going toward the JIE [Joint Information Environment].”

Gen. Ferrell notes that Army information technology is moving from a hardware- to a software-defined environment, and carrying out that change is a future priority. Once the Army transitions to the cloud and acquires the hardware it needs, its next step will be to buy services. He describes this as a cultural shift within the service.

This change is necessary in part because the general is concerned that adversaries are eroding U.S. technology dominance, placing increased requirements on the work force, investments and security. Remedying this threat will require a closer partnership between the Army and industry. Gen. Ferrell relates that he spent a week in Silicon Valley with other service and agency information technology leaders, led by the Defense Department CIO, talking with industry partners and venture capital companies.

The Defense Department is trying to infuse some of the region’s innovative spirit into its efforts, and improving its relationship with the private sector was a topic of discussion. All agreed on the need for more transparency and partnerships allowing industry to work with the Defense Department and the Army to gain a better understanding of each other’s management structures, requirements, cycles and needs.

The department is establishing a liaison office in Silicon Valley to improve coordination and cooperation, Gen. Ferrell continues. It will be known as the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, or DIUX. Remote-sensing technologies, big data, advanced computing, robotics, miniaturization and additive manufacturing all are potential targets of opportunity in Silicon Valley, according to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.

Gen. Ferrell emphasizes that his goal is for “no space between our relationship” with industry. “[Industry] can perceive an obstacle if they think there are barriers to gain access to the military. Sometimes they feel that ‘I can’t get in,’” he says. He wants to overcome that concept and bridge the gap between the Army and the private sector.

Gen. Ferrell offers that mastery of big data analytics, including how the process is woven into operations, is among the practices necessary to widen the U.S. technology gap once again. Also essential is moving the right amount of information to the right warfighter at the right time, which is a long-standing challenge. Another solution is to “stay on the edge” with cybersecurity, particularly with technology that helps understand network anomalies.

Above all, the Army’s information technology investments must be moving toward the JIE, Gen. Ferrell says.

The Army announced a plan for improving its communications earlier this year. The Army Network Campaign Plan (ANCP) comprises two elements: a near-term implementation strategy that focuses on activities and goals for calendar years 2015 and 2016 and a midyear plan that concentrates on calendar years 2017-2021. Gen. Ferrell explains that the midyear plan begins in 2017 because it is the next program objective memorandum (POM) year.

The CIO/G-6 office also is developing a strategic document that looks beyond 2021. For the midterm, it will examine which capabilities the Army would want to bring in at that time. The ANCP focuses on five lines of effort, and Gen. Ferrell offers that they will be “enduring beyond my time.”

The first effort is to bring signal capabilities to the force, he says. This entails training, doctrine, equipping and readiness from the tactical level up to the strategic level. As a result, the G-6 will be linked more closely with the Signal Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia, the general points out.

The second area is to enhance cybersecurity capabilities, which the general describes as huge. The Army has come a long way in setting up cyber protection teams, he says, and 26 teams will be fully mission capable by spring 2016. Another 11 will be established for the National Guard and four for the Reserves.

The Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon features two commandants—one for cyber and the other for the Signal Corps. These brigadier-general-equivalent positions are placed under a major general commander. Also at Fort Gordon is an O-6 command Cyber Mission Unit, a brigade aligned with the 7th Signal Command.

In addition, Fort Gordon hosts the Joint Force Headquarters–Cyber, and its primary focus is to support combatant commanders. The 2nd Army was stood up with this effort, and the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM) now reports to the 2nd Army as well as the G-6, Gen. Ferrell says. The service also is looking at a cyber career track for civilians similar to the one it established in 2014 for warfighters. Options include working with the G-2, G-3, Army cyber, Manpower and Reserve Affairs and the Office of Personnel Management.

The third effort is to increase network capacity. Gen. Ferrell notes that the Army network backbone runs at about 10 gigabytes per second, while posts and camps operate at only 600 megabytes. The key to increasing bandwidth is multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) technology, which he hopes will expand network backbone capacity from 10 gigabytes to 100 gigabytes. Each Army installation will be boosted to as much as 10 gigabytes.

Gen. Ferrell relates that soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq had virtually unlimited bandwidth capacity in theater. But returning to the United States “was like going back to the 1960s era,” with relatively low capacity and capabilities, he said. “It was like trying to put an iPod in a 1970 Cadillac. The capability and connection is just not there.” The push to increase bandwidth in the backbone and at each installation is ongoing, he emphasizes.

The fourth area is to deliver information technology services to the tactical edge. This will be achieved as the Army moves to a cloud-based model, which has entailed consolidation of data centers. A continuing militarywide data center reduction initiative has resulted in a significant number of closings. The Army has shuttered about 43 percent of its more than 1,400 data centers, Gen. Ferrell reports. While that effort continues, the Army is examining applications with an eye toward eliminating some, migrating some to the cloud or keeping some locally, he says. The service has seven large data centers that each run about 11,000 applications, along with another seven medium-size data centers that average more than 8,000 applications each.

The Army released a cloud strategy document in March, and the service is working out its policy details. Among the considerations is whether to move a data center to a commercial center, host a data center on Army premises that would be managed by a commercial vendor or use a hybrid of the two. The Army is working with the Defense Department on a cost-benefit analysis to determine which option to pursue for the seven large data centers, and its own Enterprise Information Systems office is developing a blanket purchase agreement covering the three cloud options for the smaller data centers.

The fifth effort is to strengthen network operations. This involves examining command and control network operations for managing the global network while partnering with the Army Cyber Command “for a network that is secure, integrated, standards-based—that ensures uninterrupted global access to enable collaboration of decisive actions throughout all operations that the Army will be involved in,” Gen. Ferrell declares.

These five lines of effort break down into several priorities over the next 12 months, the general relates. A top priority is network modernization, which comprises four components: joint regional security stacks (JRSSs); MPLS technology incorporation; upgrade switches for all posts and installations; and joint management software to oversee the JRSS capability. The time frame for this update is to focus on the continental United States in 2015, Europe and Southwest Asia next year and Korea and the Pacific Rim in 2017.

Another priority involves the cloud. Two pilot programs are examining different aspects of cloud operations. One, at West Point in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers, focuses on moving services to the cloud. The general offers that this is a unique situation because one user offers a school environment while the other has a global reach. The other pilot involves the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and focuses on applications. The G-6 will test TRADOC’s nonsecure gaming application through the command’s network that allows individual soldiers to access their own training. Later tests will evaluate secure applications.

Improving home-station mission command centers is a priority that affects the Army’s ways of warfighting. This aims at developing expeditionary mission command for elements deployed to an area of operation with little or no notice. The intent is to allow commanders to forward deploy a standard set of capabilities at the point of need in theater while leaving behind capabilities that the home station can provide.

Gen. Ferrell notes that not all home-station mission command centers have the same level of capability. Establishing seamless mission command will involve a multistep process. First, the G-6 is surveying the home-station capabilities of all the divisions and corps. Then, it will work with TRADOC to define the minimum capabilities required to connect a soldier from a deployed location to the home station.

This connectivity will be a two-way street. Gen. Ferrell elaborates that deployed forces will be connected with their home stations, which in turn will extend home capabilities all the way to the front. This connectivity will include intelligence as well as warfighting functional operating areas, and it will be seamless from home station, en route, early entry and fully into the theater. “Part of that process is … being able to work the initiative to where that home station provides the same capability that a TOC [tactical operations center] typically provides to a unit en route,” he says.

Gen. Ferrell relates that the Army is working with the U.S. Air Force to modify C-17 aircraft to enable this two-way connectivity on the move. The goal is to equip about 35 of the transport aircraft with the right communications antennas by fiscal year 2017. Roll-on, roll-off communications packages are being developed to equip maneuver forces aboard those aircraft.

For early entry force connectivity, the Army is tailoring small, medium and large communications packages. Gen. Ferrell reports that these packages are undergoing proof-of-concept testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, and they should reach the force in fiscal year 2017. TRADOC units are working on scalable TOCs to determine mobility and capability requirements.

Another priority for Gen. Ferrell is network convergence. His office is striving to bring the National Guard, the Corps of Engineers and the Reserves onto the Army network. The office is working out the technical details for requirements to generate a road map for that convergence. Two items are key to its success. One is the Defense Information Systems Agency’s establishment of JRSS sites at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and in Oklahoma, and the second is the Army’s implementation of its convergence plan. The JRSS standups should take place soon, the general believes, so plan implementation should begin this fall.

When the plan is completed in the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, more than 60 percent of the Army network will be converged on a single enterprise, Gen. Ferrell points out. The remaining 40 percent includes other unclassified networks across the United States and worldwide, including combatant command networks for which the Army is the executive agent. For classified networks, including intelligence, a separate but closely aligned effort is underway.

Amid these modernization priorities is the Korean Peninsula. A recent visit to Korea revealed that the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches constituting the structure of the Army’s network there will reach the end of their technological lifetime this year, Gen. Ferrell notes. The general relates that he and other Army leaders worked to identify funding to replace the aging network, beginning with the command posts. Even with the consolidation move to Camp Humphreys (SIGNAL Magazine, November 2013, “Korean Military Networks Flourish Under Duress”), these command posts need to maintain their operational capabilities, he says.

Overall, moving to the cloud, improving network capacity and security and modernizing switches will take up to five years, the general adds.

With these short- and long-term priorities, challenges remain. In particular, Gen. Ferrell cites cybersecurity. Protecting a legacy network from new cyberthreats is a major problem, especially with the older network backdoors. While the JRSS approach is effective, it may not be sufficient to provide the necessary defense in depth. Issues such as applications, platforms and infrastructure all weigh heavily on building defense in depth, the general observes. Meeting this challenge will require an enterprise strategy that will not be developed overnight, he allows.

The G-6 also is examining how to collapse the tactical network and the institutional network. Integrating these two networks is a priority, Gen. Ferrell offers.

He relates that when the Army stood up its Cyber Command, some in the Signal Corps regiment feared for its future. The general warrants that the Signal Corps will continue to be the backbone of the Army information enterprise. Army signal, cyber and military intelligence will maintain a partnership, and that relationship “is the way ahead,” he emphasizes. “When you look at the analytics, communications and cyber, that’s all part of cyberspace operations.”

However, that does not mean these elements will continue on traditional paths. Continuing to rely on the past leadership development model would lead to signal irrelevancy, so Gen. Ferrell emphasizes four career criteria for signaleers to pursue. First is exposure in the core signal military occupational specialty at tactical through strategic levels. Second is a joint assignment that illustrates how the Army connects through the JIE. Third is to have cyber experience, both in the Army and at the U.S. Cyber Command. And fourth is to have enterprise time in the Pentagon.