LandWarNet 2011: US Army detail Cyber Vision 2020

Senior officers have provided more details regarding the US Army's Cyber Vision 2020 plan at the LandWarNet conference on 27 August.

In a roundtable discussion with the media, the generals said US forces including signals regiments and the army Cyber Command would be required to become more expeditionary and efficient in line with budget constraints.

Lt Gen Susan Lawrence, US Army Chief Information Officer, explained how the army was looking to become smaller but much more capable and described how US forces were now becoming more CONUS-based than ever before. 'As the army becomes more expeditionary, it must be connected to mission command networks,' she explained.

She also outlined four imperatives in the strategy including a single secure standard based network; enabling of global collaboration; access at the point of the need; and capable, reliable and trusted systems.

Meanwhile, Gen Hernandez, commander of the army's Cyber Command said '[Cyber] threats are real, growing and sophisticated' and described the new command's scope to perform specialist cyberspace operations in defence of all 'army operations to ensure US and allied freedom of action in cyberspace'.

'Our mission is clear and so too is the Vision 2020 - to generate a professional team of elite cyber warriors,' he added.

Finally, Maj Gen Alan Lynn, Chief of Signal for the US Army and Commanding General of the army's Signal Center of Excellence, said the service had undergone a 'fundamental' change over the last year.

'We were running on Desert Storm-era doctrine, supporting down to battalion level. This just isn't low enough in the formation now so we took a look at requirements and a mission essential capability list to provide communications down to company level and below...but without growth in personnel,' he said.

'We took a hard look at structure, doctrine, equipment and employment of signals forces. I foresee more capable and smaller teams like special operations forces and smaller and more capable systems,' Lynn continued.

Finally, Lynn said he was also positively following up calls for a Cyber Warfare Ranger School, saying: 'This is becoming more and more important. In the science and technology world, those who really want to do that are declining. Finding those people is coming hard to come by.'