American Security Today September Digital Magazine September 2016 | Page 20

Volume 7

September 2016 Edition
say… is intercepted or jammed,” Gen. Hodges
said. “Russian unmanned aerial vehicles are able
to fly overhead and spy on formations—things we
haven’t had to worry about for the past 15 years.”

(Learn More, courtesy of AFCEA International and YouTube)

One challenge today’s armed forces face is how
dependent they have become on the cyber domain
in such a relatively short period of time. Although
the network-centric warfare concept was introduced less than two decades ago, today’s warfighters depend on technology for situational awareness, operations coordination and calls for help as
if a sophisticated network always existed. But, the
increased dependency on technology enlarges vulnerabilities, and connection protection is akin to defending a line in the water.
Defending technology with technology is not the
only approach, however. For example, recent international conflicts with cyber components provide insights into potential adversarial e-tactics and
strategies. TechNet Augusta speaker Lt. Gen. Ben
Hodges, USA, commander, U.S. Army Europe,
shared that the United States is learning a lot about
Russian capabilities from the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia used jamming and other means to effectively counter unmanned aerial vehicles flown by
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, which monitors the situation between Russia and the Ukraine. Gen. Hodges reported that
he recently asked a senior American official what
Ukraine needed most. Without hesitation, the unnamed official replied: secure communications.
“They are getting hammered because they do not
have the ability to talk securely and everything they

Maj. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, USA, commander, Army Cyber
Center of Excellence

Maj. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, USA, commander,
Army Cyber Center of Excellence, elaborated the
real-world effects of these tactics, saying, “You can’t
call for supporting fires. You can’t call for medevac.
You can’t get resupplied. You don’t know where
your leaders are. You get fixed, and you become a
very easy target for precision fires. They maneuver
right over you with combined arms maneuvers.”
To address adversaries’ changing tactics, the U.S.
military forces are making changes of their own.
Ronald Pontius, deputy to the commanding general, U.S. Army Cyber Command and Second Army,
predicted one of the biggest advances in the near
future likely will be the convergence of major military
networks into one unified Department of Defense
Information Network (DODIN). “The Signal Corps
will not only be highly relevant, it will be central to
everything that occurs on and across the DODIN,”
Pontius stated.
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