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<\/p>\nEl Ej\u00e9rcito de E.E.U.U.\u00a0sabe que su\u00a0red\u00a0no funcionar\u00e1 en una\u00a0gran guerra\u00a0.\u00a0Es demasiado vulnerable al\u00a0hackeo\u00a0y al\u00a0atasco,\u00a0demasiado engorroso\u00a0para desplegar y configurar, muy dif\u00edcil de usar para los soldados. Es por eso\u00a0que el\u00a0General Mayor\u00a0Pete Gallagher, Jefe del\u00a0equipo funcional cruzado que\u00a0lidera la revisi\u00f3n de la red, expresa su punto de vista.<\/p>\n
FORT MYER: The Army knows its\u00a0network\u00a0won\u2019t work in a\u00a0big war. It\u2019s too vulnerable to\u00a0hacking\u00a0and\u00a0jamming,\u00a0too cumbersome\u00a0to deploy and set up, too hard for soldiers to use.<\/p>\n
So the service is trying to fix things. The long-term solution may take \u201cbig, leap-ahead technology,\u201d said\u00a0Maj. Gen. Pete Gallagher, head of the\u00a0Cross Functional Team\u00a0leading the network overhaul (more on that below). But, as Gallagher and other soldiers showed off here yesterday,\u00a0short-term solutions\u00a0can be as simple as replacing old server stacks with new ones one-third the size, replacing bulky metal antennas with inflatable ones, or loading new software on an off-the-shelf Android phone.<\/p>\n
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Nett Warrior\u00a0was the Army\u2019s attempt to bring the GPS maps, \u201cBlue Force Tracking\u201d of friendly units\u2019 locations, and digital messaging that are standard in command posts and vehicles to the sergeant on foot. It uses a standard\u00a0Android\u00a0Galaxy smartphone plugged into the tactical radio network (though it can use cell towers if available). But soldiers found it awkward and difficult to use \u2014 in part because of the interface, but in part because the device used classified data, subjecting users to all sorts of regulations like locking it up when not on mission.<\/p>\n
So the Army loaded new software, the\u00a0Android Tactical Assault Kit\u00a0(ATAK), and downgraded the encryption. Now Nett Warrior only handles \u201csecure but unclassified\u201d data (though it can be reset to handle secret data if necessary) using off-the-shelf commercial encryption. That means troops can even take it back to the barracks to play around with and figure it out.<\/p>\n
When I asked yesterday if I could photograph the screen \u2014 showing real-time troop movements in an exercise hundreds of miles away \u2014 the soldiers showing it off said sure. (See the top of this story) So what if the world saw? By the time it would take for me to publish my article, let alone for an enemy to crack the banking-sector-level encryption, the soldiers would be someplace else.<\/p>\n
How much easier is the new Nett Warrior? Staff Sergeant Jason Roseberry of the 82nd Airborne told reporters here that his team got their devices just two days before heading to the Joint Reading Training Center for high-pressure wargames. \u201c18 hours later, the soldiers\u2026were messaging back and forth, pulling mission graphics down, talking over the radio,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was no official training at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Counting both the Rifleman Radios attached to Nett Warrior and more powerful models for higher leaders, there were about 240 radios for the 714 paratroopers in Roseberry\u2019s unit, the storied 1st Battalion, 508th Airborne Infantry. When they arrived at the JRTC on Fort Polk, he said, \u201cwe had the full network up in probably five minutes.\u201d Then they strapped on their radios and jumped out of airplanes with them.<\/p>\n
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Streamlining the Network<\/strong><\/p>\n Streamlining the network is especially essential for airborne troops, who travel light. Roseberry\u2019s brigade in the 82nd is getting first crack at much of the new equipment.<\/p>\n Other simple but useful innovations include replacing heavy metal antennas used for satellite communications with inflatable ones. Air pressure keeps the parabolic dish in shape and inflates a protective ball around it. Soldiers with minimal training, doing a field test in Alaska in four-degree weather, managed to get it set up and connected to the network in under 30 minutes, an Army briefer told reporters. Packing it up just requires deflating it, folding it and putting it in three bags you could carry on a commercial flight or parachute out of a military plane. (This small system has a big name, Transportable Tactical Command Communications or\u00a0T2C2).<\/p>\n The Army\u2019s also lightening the server stacks that run all the networks in a brigade. Currently a brigade has three stacks, each taller than a man and weighing 1,200 pounds. But computing power keeps getting smaller and cheaper in the civilian sector, so the Army is issuing new stacks with the same capabilities that weigh 357 pounds apiece \u2014 and have room for future upgrades. Setup time has dropped from 30 minutes to ten. There\u2019s also a miniature version of the server that runs off a laptop, which can maintain basic connectivity while the big stacks are being taken down, transported, and set up somewhere else.<\/p>\n The biggest \u201clight\u201d system the Army showed off yesterday at Fort Myer was a mobile Tactical Communications Node (TCN) that fits inside a Humvee. That may seem bulky until you compare it with the original, which required a three-axle FMTV truck.<\/p>\n While the new Tactical Communications Node is smaller, however, it still uses the same WIN-T software and hardware. That\u2019s the Warfighter Information Network \u2013 Tactical that Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley decided was inadequate for high-intensity war.<\/p>\n The Army will\u00a0stop buying WIN-T\u00a0this year but will keep issuing the ones it\u2019s already bought. When that\u2019s done in 2021, every active-duty infantry and Stryker brigade will have WIN-T Increment 2, which can operate from a moving vehicle. Their National Guard counterparts and all armored brigades will have Increment 1B, which only works when stationary.<\/p>\n The goal, said Gallagher, is to \u201clevel set the Army with a common tactical network foundation\u201d as a uniform starting point for future modernization.<\/p>\n Making Army network equipment lighter or easier to use is definitely helpful, but it doesn\u2019t address the fundamental problems with WIN-T, the backbone of the network. Replacing WIN-T is one of those big, long-term efforts.<\/p>\n Halt, Fix, Pivot<\/strong><\/p>\n The Army\u2019s strategy is \u201chalt, fix, pivot\u201d:<\/p>\n Gallagher was sparing with details, but he said his Cross Functional Team \u2014 one of\u00a0eight working on top Army priorities\u00a0\u2014 was focused on two aspects of the new network:<\/p>\n Gallagher\u2019s CFT is throwing out old assumptions \u2014 \u201cin many cases we\u2019ve held ourselves hostage by the way we\u2019ve crafted those requirements,\u201d he told reporters \u2014 and turning to companies outside the traditional defense industry \u2014 \u201cnot just the normal players.\u201d A \u201ctech exchange\u201d in February at Aberdeen was attended by representatives of 204 companies, 87 of them small businesses, he said. Companies are now submitting white papers on potential solutions, both near-term and long-term. \u201cA lot of aggressive experimentation and demonstration (is) ongoing as we speak,\u201d he said, with ordinary soldiers providing feedback from field tests.<\/p>\n There are many problems to solve, but \u201cprobably the main effort (is) assured network transport in a contested environment against a peer adversary,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cThat\u2019s where a lot of our science and technology efforts have been refocused on, and where we\u2019re partnering with industry.\u201d In other words, how can the Army plan stop the enemy from jamming our transmissions or tracing their sources for\u00a0artillery strikes, electronic warfare techniques which the Russians used to devastating effect in\u00a0Ukraine?<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of innovative anti-jam solutions,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cDARPA\u2019s got some initiatives for small aperture Advanced EHF (AEHF) capability that we\u2019re interested in and there are other anti-jam solutions that the (Army)\u00a0CERDEC\u00a0community and even industry (will) come back to us with.\u201d<\/p>\n There are two complementary approaches, Gallagher and his aides explained. You can make individual point-to-point radio link harder to jam, and you can create alternative links \u2014 a so-called multi-path network \u2014 so that when one is jammed, troops can just switch to another. Army radios will need to use the kind of Low Probability of Intercept\/Low Probability of Detection (LPI\/LPD) transmitters now used on stealth aircraft. The software controlling the network will need to be able to do dynamic spectrum reallocation, quickly switching from jammed frequencies to clear ones. And the Army will need to replace its array of single-purpose radios with ones that can transmit a wide variety of signals.<\/p>\n It is a daunting and long-term task. In the meantime, Gallagher said, the Army will \u201cleverage existing capabilities that are already proven by either our\u00a0joint partners, the\u00a0Special Operations\u00a0community, or commercial-off-the-shelf solutions\u2026already out there\u2026.to immediately fix our ability to fight.<\/p>\n![\"Sydney](\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/IMG_1063-225x300.jpg\")
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