March 24, 2023 | International, Other Defence
Pentagon selects Defense Innovation Unit director
The organization has been without a formal leader since September 2022.
September 6, 2018 | International, C4ISR
What’s standing in the way of multidomain operations?
By: Daniel Cebul
WASHINGTON — Mutlidomain operations are set to become standard for the U.S. armed services in the coming years, but technical, doctrinal and organizational hurdles remain.
One impediment to multidomain operations involves issues in linking the service's disparate communication and information networks to share targeting data and communications. Rebecca Grant, a national security analyst with IRIS Independent Research, identified her “No. 1 problem" as “the communications architecture.”
This stuff is not there yet," she said Wednesday at the Defense News Conference. "I'm less worried about the platforms, we've got some magnificent platforms. We've got to have that communication architecture. All the ability to do that is there, whether that's secure waveforms or the [radio frequency] links, but we have to take the plunge now, immediately, to go out and experiment with this next year.”
The need for an integrated communications network was echoed by L3 Technologies' vice president of communications technology.
“You need a network that can take all the networks we have right now, a systems-of-systems-level approach, that can tie these disparate networks together because you don't want to get rid of that install base because its too expensive to replace,” Keith Gentile said.
Another challenge involves changing the services' doctrinal approaches to operations, especially as each branch becomes more dependent on one another.
Gentile said that if the U.S. plans to quickly respond to enemy developments, doctrine surrounding operations in the domains must change.
“There's a role mission and function issue that needs to be addressed when you talk about cross-domain or multidomain capabilities because each of the services operates in different domains," he said. "You got to go ahead and get away from the parochial pieces of service stovepipes, mission roles and functions — and realize you are talking about cross-domain capabilities.”
Jaret Riddick, the director of the Vehicle Technology Directorate at the Army Research Laboratory, cited the service's recently stood-up Futures Command as one example of change within the services.
“I would not downplay the steps the Army is making in standing up Futures Command. To take a four-star command and make the type of reorganization that has not happened since the early 1970s — I would not call that incremental,” he said.
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August 14, 2018 | International, C4ISR
Pentagon invites researchers to hack the Marine Corps
By: Jessie Bur The Department of Defense kicked off its sixth bug bounty program Aug.12 with Hack the Marine Corps, a challenge focusing on the Corps' public-facing websites and services. “Hack the Marine Corps allows us to leverage the talents of the global ethical hacker community to take an honest, hard look at our current cybersecurity posture," said Maj.Gen. Matthew Glavy, the head of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command, in a news release. “Our Marines need to operate against the best. What we learn from this program will assist the Marine Corps in improving our war-fighting platform, the Marine Corps Enterprise Network. Working with the ethical hacker community provides us with a large return on investment to identify and mitigate current critical vulnerabilities, reduce attack surfaces and minimize future vulnerabilities. It will make us more combat ready.” The DoD launched its first bug bounty, Hack the Pentagon, in May 2016, which was considered one of the first major successes for the then-newly minted Defense Digital Service. Since then the DoD has held bug bounties for the Army, the Air Force, the Air Force again and the Defense Travel System. The combined programs resulted in over 600 resolved vulnerabilities with approximately $500,000 awarded to the ethical hackers participating in the program. “Information security is a challenge unlike any other for our military. Our adversaries are working to exploit networks and cripple our operations without ever firing a weapon," said Chris Lynch, the director of the Defense Digital Service. "Sometimes, the best line of defense is a skilled hacker working together with our men and women in uniform to better secure our systems. We're excited to see Hack the Pentagon continue to build momentum and bring together nerds who want to make a difference and help protect our nation.” Hack the Marine Corps was launched with HackerOne, which partners with the hacker community to help businesses and government conduct bug bounties, and kicked off with a live hacking event coinciding with the Black Hat USA, DefCon and BSides conferences in Las Vegas. The live hack resulted in 75 unique vulnerability reports and more than $80,000 in awards. “Success in cybersecurity is about harnessing human ingenuity,” said Marten Mickos, CEO at HackerOne. “There is no tool, scanner or software that detects critical security vulnerabilities faster or more completely than hackers. The Marine Corps, one of the most secure organizations in the world, is the latest government agency to benefit from diverse hacker perspectives to protect Americans on and off the battlefield.” The bug bounty program ends Aug. 26. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/marine-corps/2018/08/13/pentagon-invites-researchers-to-hack-the-marine-corps/
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December 19, 2018 | International, Naval
5 takeaways: Top US Navy officer releases updated strategy document
By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy's top officer released an updated version of his strategy document Monday, an expanded version heavy on goals for specific programs that extend beyond his tenure as chief of naval operations. Almost twice the length of the first edition, Adm. John Richardson's Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority version 2.0 expands on some of the concepts laid out in 2016, and functions as a to-do list for both the fleet and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations staff. Here are five takeaways: 1) Adversaries Design 2.0 is still aimed squarely at competing with China and Russia. “China and Russia seek to redefine the norms of the entire international system on terms more favorable to themselves,” the document reads, and goes on to say that the U.S. “competitive advantage has shrunk and, in some areas, is gone all together.” The U.S. Navy must be agile to keep pace with technology and the tactics of adversaries, the document outlines. To do so it must compete in “gray zone” areas as well as when the shooting starts – to compete with China and Russia in scenarios short of war as well as in direct combat, Richardson writes. “Our adversaries can operate at different levels of intensity in different domains and the same time,” the document reads. 2) To-do list The middle of the document greatly expands on the CNO's “lines of effort,” or areas of focus. Under “Strengthening Naval Power,” CNO lists a number of strategic goals – including standing up the new Norfolk-based 2nd Fleet, which will control ships, submarines and aircraft based out of Norfolk; developing new concepts of operations that focus on fighting as a more spread-out force able to cover more territory through networking sensors; and continuing to apply the lessons learned from the two fatal guided-missile destroyer accidents in 2017. The document outlines award date goals for contracts to major programs, from the future frigate (2020) and Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (2023). It identifies the requirement for the replacement to the F/A-18 Super Hornet and E/A-18G Growler by the end of 2019 – a program known as Next Generation Air Dominance – to field by 2030. Other initiatives include integrating more artificial intelligence and machine learning into warfare systems, as well as 3D printing for replacement parts. The document also establishes goals for personnel including making it easier for sailors to choose and negotiate orders and access their records on their smart phones. 3) New stuff The document calls for a new three-star command inside OPNAV that is linked to a related effort to transform the Naval War College in Rhode Island and the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, California. Naval War College, combined with Naval Warfare Development Command, will support Development Group East, which will workshop and develop new concepts based on the new technologies entering the fleet. On the West Coast, Development Group West will be supported by Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command the Post-Graduate School and will serve as a “center of excellence” for capabilities development. The three-star inside OPNAV will be the coordinator for these new constructs, tasked with overseeing the Navy's “education, experimentation, exercise, and analytic efforts.” The document also calls for the development and fielding of an offensive hypersonic weapon by 2025, a move to counter China and Russia's moves with similar systems. It also references a new “large-scale exercise” planned for 2020, although details are sparse. 4) Logistics The new design puts an emphasis on what has become a glaring shortfall of the U.S. military, its logistics. “We will aim to act as early as possible to de-escalate any crisis on our terms and be ready for the next move,” the document reads. “This will require we sustain the fight with the logistics capabilities needed to refuel, rearm, resupply and, repair our operational forces” Later the document calls for the Navy to “posture logistics capability ashore and at sea in ways that allow the fleet to operate globally, at a pace that can be sustained over time.” 5) Takeaway While the document is detailed, the overall tone shift of Richardson's design from documents released a decade ago is stark, according to James Holmes, a strategy professor at the Naval War College. “The change of tone from the 2007 Maritime Strategy, our first strategy since the 1980s, is stunning,” Holmes said in an email. “The 2007 strategy was a document for a world that might turn competitive or might remain cooperative. The name China appeared nowhere, let alone as a potential foe, while there were a fair number of gauzy generalities and platitudes in there. “You could track the shift in tone from 2007 through the 2015 ‘refresh' of the Maritime Strategy through Design 1.0 in 2016 to this document. Doing so tells you the world has changed around us and we are trying to change with it – or catch up where we've fallen behind.” As for the detailed pieces of the document, they function as a good list of priorities, said Bryan McGrath, a former destroyer skipper turned consultant who worked on the last Maritime Strategy. “This is a solid statement of command intent,” McGrath said. “It is essentially a worklist for his subordinates to guide and prioritize their efforts. It seems to me that any interest to an audience broader than the Navy flag community would be in understanding CNO's priorities.” Military Times reporter Geoff Ziezulewicz contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/12/17/top-us-navy-officer-releases-updated-strategy-document-five-takeaways/