FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. – Since 2015 U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER) has been defining and developing cyberspace operations capabilities to support Army maneuver elements through the Cyberspace Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) Support to Corps and Below (CSCB) program created in response to a directive by the Chief of Staff of the Army to build unit cyber capacity and help the Army to operationalize cyber.
Lt. Col. Wayne Sanders, CSCB chief for ARCYBER, said it’s not a question of whether maneuver commanders need these capabilities at the corps level and below but crafting what that organization looks like.
“The CEMA’s job, and Expeditionary CEMA Teams (ECTs), provide that extra expertise that leverages higher-level capabilities, such as RCCs (Regional Cyber Centers) and the JCC (Joint Cyber Center), and through the IC (intelligence community) – the result is more arrows in the commander’s quiver to generate effects,” said Sanders.
Determining the make-up of that support to maneuver units – what cyber and related manpower, equipment, capabilities, coordination and processes are needed to support commanders in the field with cyber effects and intelligence – is what the CSCB program is all about.
“Army Cyber Command has built real-time reach-back links between corps and below level forces at the National Training Center and cyber operators at Fort Meade, Maryland and Fort Gordon, Georgia, that further enhance training capabilities for the Army’s brigade combat teams as well as our cyber forces,” ARCYBER commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittees on cybersecurity and personnel in September.
The CSCB effort continues to broaden and deepen as well, as the Army brings together supporting disciplines to build information warfare capacity.
“This is a team sport, and to be successful in the cyber domain, we have to bring together the intelligence, cyber, signal, EW (electronic warfare) and information operations communities,” Fogarty told Signal Magazine in August.
A key component of the CSCB initiative will be the 915th Cyber Warfare Support Battalion (CWSB) composed of a number of ECTs and tailored to provide support to maneuver units at corps and below level. The battalion is now in its initial stages of standing up. In his testimony to the Senate subcommittees, Fogarty said the creation of the CWSB is based on lessons learned from the CSCB initiative, and is designed to be “dedicated to integrating tactical operations with strategic cyber capabilities, and supporting electronic warfare and cyber planning and integration.”
In November Col. Brian Vile, commander of the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade, described the type of Soldiers he wants in the CWSB.
“I want Soldiers who want to do the most challenging tactical problems in the most demanding conditions,” he said.