Page 12 - Ft. Irwin High Desert Warrior March 2016

12 High Desert Warrior
In tMharche4, 2B016ox
Integration of cyberspace capabilities
into tactical units
By U.S. Army Cyber Command
The Army’s efforts to integrate operational
cyberspace capabilities into its tactical units took
another big step forward during a training rotation
at the National Training Center in January.
Cyber forces provided support to offensive
and defensive cyberspace operations, intelligence,
information operations and opposing forces for
the NTC rotation for the Lancer brigade – the
2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry
Division from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
Elements of the U.S. Army Cyber Com-
mand headquarters: 780th Military Intelligence
Brigade from Fort Meade, Md.; U.S. Army
Cyber Protection Brigade from Fort Gordon,
Ga.; Cyberspace Opposing Force from the 1st
Information Operations Command at Fort
Belvoir, Va.; 201st Expeditionary Military Intel-
ligence Brigade from JBLM; and Fort Gordon’s
U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and 7th
Signal Command took part in the exercise.
The cyber participation in the training was a
key element in the Army’s ongoing Cyber Sup-
port to Corps and Below (CSCB) pilot, designed
to help the Army develop how it will build and
employ cyber in its tactical formations.
To further facilitate the training and the pilot,
planners, staff officers and subject-matter experts
from Army Cyber, the 780th and the Cyber Pro-
tection Brigade also integrated into the brigade
staff and NTC’s Operations Group for the rota-
tion. Their role was to provide additional support
and expertise for the training while gathering
observations and recommendations to help the
Army determine how it will train, man, equip,
sustain and develop doctrine to define and con-
duct cyber operations in tactical environments.
The cyber component of the 2nd SBCT
rotation represented an extension of an inte-
grative cyber exercise the brigade conducted at
JBLM in October. It also follows and expands
on two similar brigade combat team rotations
conducted last year at the Joint Readiness Train-
ing Center at Fort Polk, La., as part of the pilot.
Each of those exercises was preceded by exten-
sive planning and unit training at home station
supported by cyber forces. Preparing the Lancer
brigade and the NTC for cyberspace training and
operations was no exception, and began months
before the rotation kicked off at Fort Irwin.
Cyber elements “integrated early and integrated
often” with the brigade, said Lt. Col. Jonathan
Burnett, the CSCB pilot lead for Army Cyber
Command. That integration took several forms,
he added, from familiarizing the unit with cyber
operations, capabilities, execution criteria and rules son were part of a team of researchers from the Army
of engagement and integrating into their planning
processes and operations, to establishing critical
intelligence support at JBLM for the brigade at
NTC, to making recommendations for hardening
its networks and systems against attack.
For more information go to www.irwin.army.mil
Col. Jerry Turner, commander of the 2nd
SBCT, said having cyber planners linked to
the brigade during its entire train-up process
helped the unit better understand the possibili-
ties and potential of cyber on the battlefield.
At the same time, the NTC infrastructure sup-
porting the rotation underwent a transformation
to enhance training on offensive cyber operations.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Nevery Berry from the
780th MIB, said his team worked on the infrastruc-
ture to support cyber training at NTC for about
six months prior to the Lancer brigade rotation, to
create a realistic cyber environment in “the box.”
Those improvements included replicating a
real-world network provider serving the several
mock villages in the box, establishing Wi-Fi access
points and providing laptops and smartphones to
enable online communication. Soldiers acting as
opposing forces and “cyber threat actors” – role-
players simulating civilians on the battlefield or
enemy sympathizers – can use the system to do
everything from carry on routine conversations
to help adversary forces target Soldiers. The same
network also enables friendly forces to detect and
take action against threats.
Where all these training scenarios once de-
pended on scripted processes, Burnett said, the
enhanced infrastructure now more realistically
reflects today’s hybrid threats.
“The environment is dynamic, and it chang-
es, and now rather than there being a script,
there is a real human factor that is manipulat-
ing how the information is viewed,” he said.
The improvements also give commanders
a lot more to think about. While much of the
traffic the network carries is mundane conversa-
tion, when real threats are detected it challenges
a commander’s decision-making, Berry said. He
will have to think about things such as key cyber
terrain, critical networks and systems, cyber rules
of engagement and execution criteria, what actions
his forces can take and how they may affect other
activities, whether they must request the authority
to take action, and even whether second- or third-
order effects or the possibility of collateral damage the 3/25 BCT rotation at Joint Readiness Training
might cause him to decide not to take action.
The pilot is also giving the Army a lot to think
about. The observations and recommendations of
the cyber planners who partnered with the 2nd
SBCT, NTC and others, such as the observer-con-
troller/trainers who closely monitor training in the
box, were presented at after-action reviews during
and after the rotation, and will be further compiled
for consideration by the Army’s decision-makers.
Capts. Frederick Waage and Matthew Hutchi-
Cyber Institute at the United States Military Acad-
emy, which also took part in the NTC rotation to
gather observations they said will be compiled into
ACI papers designed to spark discussion about the
future development of cyber activities and doctrine.
“One of the main reasons we’re out here is to gain
www.aerotechnews.com/ntcfortirwin
U.S. Army photo
Soldiers with the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade conduct cyberspace operations
during a training rotation for the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division,
here, Jan. 24. The Fort Meade, Md.-based 780th was one of several cyber organizations
that took part in the rotation as part of an pilot program to designed to help the Army
develop how it will build and employ cyber in its tactical formations.
context for current problems, so as we look out to 3rd Brigade CombatTeam, 25th Infantry Division).
future problems and try to develop future solutions, We came into this rotation understanding it. And so
we have an understanding of what the cyber force immediately the team was talking maneuver termi-
is facing now, here at the NTC and at the tactical nology and fires terminology that was understood
level,” Hutchison said during the rotation. and nested with the brigade combat team.
“We hope to add value by understanding the “We have been able to provide a solid process to
current challenges facing staff integration and cyber inform the brigade commander of his fight. We’ve
planning at the maneuver headquarters, as well as nested with decision points and provided cyber
the expeditionary nature of cyber enabling at the concepts of operation or schemes of maneuver to
maneuver headquarters,” Waage added. support the brigade’s scheme of maneuver, to the
point where Lancer 6, the brigade commander,
Ultimately the findings from the rotation and and Lancer 3, the operations officer, looks at his
other CSCB pilot efforts will be used to help cyberspace planner as a key member on the staff
NTC develop and improve the cyber elements and goes to her regularly for observations and
of its training, and help the Army make decisions recommendations on how to integrate cyberspace
on cyber doctrine, manning, rules of engagement, operations to support the brigade fight.”
individual and collective training, tactics, equip-
ment, and the myriad other functions necessary Turner said the 2nd SBCT’s successes with
to creating and employing forces in a warfighting cyber operations have convinced him that it’s a ca-
domain – even whether to incorporate cyber pability that all brigade commanders should have.
functions at the corps level and below at all.
“We had some great success during this rota-
Perhaps the most major lesson learned tion in terms of shaping information operations
from the pilot thus far is that cyber effects can with cyber (as well as) on the wide area security
be understood and executed much like other mission with cyber, and then certainly in the
warfighting effects, such as combat engineering decisive action role,” Turner said. “So this may
or intelligence operations, allowing cyber plan- not be the final version, and it certainly won’t be
ners and operators to use maneuver terms and the final version of how cyber works in a brigade,
symbols tactical commanders are familiar with, but what it’s allowed (us) to do is think about it
and to integrate seamlessly into their staffs. and to begin to explore its possibilities.”
“It’s not about individual enemies on the battle- Continued CSCB pilot efforts include addi-
field,” said Maj. Wayne Sanders, executive officer tional combat training center rotations. Elements
for the 781st Military Intelligence Battalion, and of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry
a member of the operations team that supported Division from Fort Riley, Kan., are already
cyber during the rotation. “It’s the ability to integrate making preparations for an August NTC rota-
into the brigade’s operations process and develop tion. In addition, increased cyber operations are
plans to support combined arms maneuver.” being incorporated into the Network Integration
Evaluation and Army Warfighter Assessment
“The importance of us being able to talk tacti- programs, a series of Soldier-led evaluations
cally is critical for our success in integrating in the designed to integrate and rapidly progress the
staff,” Burnett said. “This was identified during Army’s tactical communications network.
Center (an earlier rotation in the pilot, involving the