THE WATCH STAFF
The United States Army plans to double the size of its cyber force — including beefing up its electronic warfare (EW) capability — to deter or defeat technologically skilled adversaries.
The Army will grow its Cyber Mission Force teams and electronic warfare companies and platoons — boosting personnel from some 3,000 to “just over” 6,000 by 2030, an Army spokesperson said June 13, 2022, according to C4ISRNET, a military technology news website. Across active duty, reserves and the National Guard, the cyber branch will expand to more than 7,000.
The boost in active-duty personnel comes as the Department of Defense (DOD) shifts its focus from Middle East insurgency and terrorism threats to challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia as outlined in the 2022 National Defense Strategy. Both the PRC and Russia have invested heavily in cyberspace operations.
“Quite frankly, over the course of the 20 years of conflict, fighting a counterinsurgency, we had divested a significant amount of our electronic warfare capabilities, everything from sensing the environment to electronic protection, and certainly on the electronic attack component of it,” said Lt. Gen. John Morrison, who is the principal military advisor to the Army’s chief of staff for areas that include cyber and information technology.
Morrison spoke during a June 9 teleconference with reporters where he said the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a lesson in how EW capability will be vital in future conflicts.
“All you have to do is read open-source news,” Morrison said, according to C4ISRNET, “and you can see that it is a critical component of what is happening over in Europe right now.”
With that in mind, the Army is in the midst of rebuilding its dormant EW capabilities.
An April 25 report by the news website Breaking Defense said that several platforms under development will enable Soldiers at the “brigade level and higher … to do electronic sensing and attack, as well as give commanders a better understanding of the electronic environment on the battlefield.”
One such system is the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool, which could have its initial deployment in fiscal year 2023, according to Breaking Defense.
“You will continue to see the growth of our cyber branch, as we proliferate cyber-electromagnetic activities, capabilities,” Morrison said during the June 9 discussion. “Think cyber and electronic warfare, integrated together, throughout all of our tactical formations.”
The planned expansion of the cyber force can be attributed to two factors, Morrison said, according to a June 10 story by the government news website FedScoop. “One is Army-approved growth. And then two is … our electronic warfare professionals used to be a functional area operating on their own — they are now a part of the cyber branch. And almost all that growth is in our tactical formations,” he said.
The Army requested U.S. $16.6 billion in cyber and IT funding for fiscal 2023. More than half, roughly U.S. $9.8 billion, is flagged for modernization of the Army network, according to C4ISRNET.
The Army is already a major contributor to U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force, which conducts offensive, defensive and DOD information network operations, according to FedScoop.
The DOD recently conducted its unclassified exercise Cyber Shield 2022. Some 800 National Guard cyber specialists, including law enforcement, legal, government and corporate partners from across the country, participated June 5-17 at the Army National Guard’s Professional Education Center on Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Arkansas.The annual exercise, led by the Army National Guard and assisted by the Air National Guard, helps develop, train and exercise cyber forces in computer network defense and incident response, according to the National Guard Bureau. Among the participants was a team from the U.S. Coast Guard, whose service academy recently graduated its first cybersecurity officers.
(Pictured: Members of Guam National Guard Defensive Cyber Operations Element participate in Cyber Shield 2022.)
On June 13, the Army Cyber Corps also welcomed its first member to receive a direct commission at the rank of lieutenant colonel with the commissioning of Lt. Col. Paul Son. Son, whose background includes two decades of experience in intelligence and technology, will serve as cybersecurity operations officer in Army Cyber Command’s Technical Warfare Center.
The Cyber Direct Commissioning Program offers civilians and military members who possess specialized cyber talents, skills and education an opportunity to be directly appointed as a cyber officer in the Army, Army National Guard or Army Reserve.
IMAGE CREDIT: CAPT. CLARISSA ESTRADA/ILLINOIS NATIONAL GUARD