Defending Networks Emerges As Top Battlefield Priority
January 2017
By Stew Magnuson
The first target Russia or China will go after in a shooting war may not be an F-35, an air base, or even an aircraft carrier. These peer competitors will probably attempt to take down the U.S. military’s communications enterprise first.
And if they don’t succeed on the first day, they will attempt to do so again, again and again, senior defense leaders recently said.
“Our adversaries will intentionally and frequently try to take down our network as an asymmetric means to get after our combat power. They are going to do it,” said William T. Lasher, deputy chief of staff, G-6, at U.S. Army Forces Command headquarters.
“We are watching them do it in other areas, so we know this is coming,” he said at the Milcom conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley in October introduced the multi-domain battlefield concept, where he said ground forces of the future would have to be prepared to fight in the air, at sea and cyberspace.
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2017/January/Pages/DefendingNetworksEmergesAsTopBattlefieldPriority.aspx
