The Army will effectively rent back-office IT “as a service” from contractors, allowing it to focus on modernizing the front-line network.

It’s all part of a wider effort to rebuild the Army’s command, control, and communications (C3) networks for war against a high-tech great power.

Unlike the Taliban, Russia and China can shoot down our drones, jam our transmissions, and hack our computers. So to prepare to fight them, we need a very different communications network — one the US Army is now studying how to build.

The long-term solution may take “big, leap-ahead technology,” said Maj. Gen. Pete Gallagher, head of the Cross Functional Team leading the network overhaul. But short-term solutions can be as simple as replacing bulky metal antennas with inflatable ones or loading new software on an off-the-shelf Android phone.

WASHINGTON: The Army needs at least two years to figure out a new, war-ready communications network to replace its current, fragile systems, the acting secretary said this week. There’s no a quick fix: The service is effectively starting over on what it’s long described as its No. 1 priority for modernization. A recently created task… Keep reading →

AUSA: Faced with a grave threat from Russian advances in electronic warfare over the last five years, the US Army really will develop a useful, effective and adaptable tactical network after a decade of missteps and failures. Really. [Click here to download our free ebook on the Army’s network travails] “The urgency of now is… Keep reading →

AUSA: Faced with a grave threat from Russian advances in electronic warfare over the last five years, the US Army really will develop a useful, effective and adaptable tactical network after a decade of missteps and failures. Really. [Click here to download our free ebook on the Army’s network travails] “The urgency of now is… Keep reading →

Breaking Defense Coverage of Developing a Multi-Domain Strategy For Digital Warfare.

WASHINGTON: After almost a decade of reporting on the Army’s crucial networks, I’d thought they’d started to get things right. Boy, was I wrong. At a hearing this afternoon of the House Armed Services air and land subcommittee, the Army left lawmakers shaking their heads when they announced they plan to shut down the controversial… Keep reading →

ARLINGTON: The Army’s no-holds-barred study of its network shortfalls should produce a comprehensive strategy to solve them — a strategy that can withstand the scrutiny of a skeptical Congress. That’s the goal Acting Army Secretary Robert Speer laid out for me and a fellow reporter after an Association of the US Army event this week.… Keep reading →