Photo By Wilson Rivera | The Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Operations Field Manual 3-12, Figure 1-1, is a...... read more read more
Multi-week exercise Cyber Quest 2017 kicks off on Monday for most of the month of June.
The event is a cyber and electronic warfare exploration and collaboration event hosted by the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence running through June 30 at various locations on Fort Gordon.
Fort Gordon garrison and other resident units are supporting the 26-day event.
“Cyber Quest is the Army’s initial investment to help our U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command capability managers in the definition of requirements, validation of concepts and identification of quick turnaround acquisition opportunities,” said Lt. Col. Stephen A. Roberts, Cyber Branch chief, Cyber Battle Lab of the Cyber CoE.
According to Roberts the intent of Cyber Quest 2017 is to provide external vendors an opportunity to demonstrate innovative solutions to current cyberspace operational challenges while integrating these capabilities within Army systems. Cyberspace and electronic warfare research and development organizations are represented by a host of commercial vendors, academic and governmental solution providers. Solution providers who participate in Army-led prototyping events such as Cyber Quest receive feedback to better provide future capabilities based on this integration effort.
“We want to improve our warfighting capabilities and seek innovative solutions to existing problems,” said Roberts. “A lot of capabilities have to do with management of the electromagnetic and cyberspace environment to ensure that our warfighters will be able to execute within the emerging mission space of the future.”
Roberts said there are unique challenges for commanders who are confronted with large amounts of data and information flowing into their command posts. Current commanders’ operational pictures don’t have the ability to effectively manage all of the battlespace domains, where all the aspects of war are captured to assist commanders make more effective and timely decisions, he said.
Roberts said Cyber Quest assists TRADOC managers to write and adapt training guidance to use at the tactical operational level. Managing data flow and segregating data while providing access to those who need access is one of the many challenges commanders face.
“We need to get more efficient at dealing with big data problems while driving data analytics and artificial intelligence into the tactical space to help commanders make better decisions with the enormous volumes of data they are presented with,” said Roberts.
Cyber Quest brings together Soldiers and leaders from across the Army with R&D vendors to assess the latest cyber and electronic warfare technologies and concepts against documented cyber and electronic warfare requirements.
Among the many technologies they’re looking at are tactical radio offerings that, among other things, are capable of near-silent operation, have direction-finding capabilities, and can prevent enemy electronic warfare capabilities from detecting or disrupting friendly force communications, said Roberts.
In the past decade of conflict, the U.S. Army has deployed the most capable communications systems in its history. U.S. forces dominated cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum in Afghanistan and Iraq such as jamming transmissions to block improvised explosive device detonations by enemies and adversaries who lacked the technical capabilities to challenge our superiority in cyberspace, said Roberts.
The experimentation force includes warfighters from brigade combat teams and intelligence units. Soldiers and leaders participate in such events to gain on-the-ground experience as the Army moves forward with the concepts and capabilities needed to be successful in the cyber domain.
“Events like Cyber Quest are absolutely critical as we develop, experiment, and validate electromagnetic spectrum and cyber capabilities and concepts in an ever-changing operational domain,” said Maj. Gen. John B. Morrison Jr., U.S. Army Cyber CoE and Fort Gordon commanding general. “We must leverage venues like Cyber Quest to continue to learn, adapt and evolve to meet today’s and tomorrow’s threats.”
Field Manual 3-12 was distributed in April, which explains Army cyberspace and electronic warfare operations fundamentals, terms, and definitions.
“The operational picture is the end result,” said Roberts. “There are a lot of capabilities that we are looking at during Cyber Quest that will help the process, whether it be better intrusion detection, data processing, aggregation or better decision support. There are adversaries with sophisticated electronic warfare and cyber threats … we have to be able to address that and figure out what is the right equipment to put down at the tactical edge, and what do we do with that data.”
| Date Taken: | 06.05.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.29.2017 15:19 |
| Story ID: | 260814 |
| Location: | FORT GORDON, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 130 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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