December 2008
FOCUS: INFORMATION OPERATIONS
The melding of electronic warfare, cybersecurity and various forms of digital intelligence is taking place under the rubric of information operations, or IO. All of its elements are valuable in their stand-alone states, but they have come together in the network-centric military world—and in the cyberspace-enabled civilian world, which is as much a potential target for information operations. But IO is not a separate arena such as air, land or sea. It is part of every aspect of military operations, as various military leaders have declared that the information realm is a theater of operations for all of the services. SIGNAL Magazine’s December focus on information operations looks at IO from several different perspectives:
- A leading U.S. official outlines the challenges the country faces with information operations.
- Recent technological developments such as widespread Internet use and commercial wireless have affected how the Defense Department conducts information operations.
- New ideas lead to new approaches to tactical communications.
- The Joint Forces Command’s (JFCOM’s) director of information operations, Joint Management Office, discusses JFCOM’s work with other combatant commands to develop training and meet their IO needs.
- The U.S. Army has its first network warfare battalion, the 741st military intelligence battalion.
FOCUS: MARINE CORPS TECHNOLOGIES
The U.S. Marine Corps often are asked to perform missions that normally are the purview of all the other services. But, unlike the other services, the Corps does not have a robust technology research and development community. So it must learn to improvise and adapt technologies from the other services along with what its own smaller research assets are able to develop. Of course, the commercial sector plays a big role with its off-the-shelf technologies. SIGNAL’s other December focus examines how the Marine Corps is keeping itself abreast of technology advances amid new forms of combat.
- The Marine Corps’ new capability set II command operations centers in major subordinate commands are key for the Marine Air Ground Task Force’s next-generation command-and-control system.
- Marine Corps units are using a wireless point-to-point and point-to-multipoint link system to enable both data and voice connectivity for deployed forces.
- The Corps is training its small unit forces in the Infantry Immersion Trainer (IIT), which provides realistic combat conditions in a virtual format to teach and reinforce combat decision making.
Other topics in the December issue include:
- The new deputy chief of naval operations for
communication networks discusses his plans for
the Navy’s IT systems, including the next generation
of the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI).
- DARPA, industry and academia are exploring the
possibility of creating an iRobot the size of a
soda can that can shape-shift to fit into an
opening the diameter of a quarter.
- The principals of a major U.S. military facility
describe the challenges they are fighting to
overcome as they relocate under the Base
Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program.
- Jacques Gansler and other experts weigh in
on the crisis in government acquisition.
- The former director of operations for the
U.S. European Command offers recommendations
on how the new U.S. Africa Command
(AFRICOM) can focus its mission priorities
better to support African nations.
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