Army Moves to Adapt-and-Buy Strategy

Springfield, VA, March 07, 2018 -- The U.S. Army is overhauling its relationship with technology providers to incorporate a new class of capabilities. Army leaders agree that the future state of the service must feature a network that is survivable, protected, intuitive, standards-based, interoperable, sustainable and, above all, highly mobile. The service plans to assume a position where it is articulating its intent, a process that’s being described as “adapt and buy.”

Lt. Gen. Bruce T. Crawford, USA, Army CIO/G-6, answers questions from the audience during the AFCEA Army Signal Conference in Springfield, Virginia.

As part of the AFCEA International Army Signal Conference, industry was asked to submit solutions to some of the service’s top challenges. Nearly two dozen abstracts were received from companies of all sizes. Eight were presented at the conference.

The Army identified these four areas as problems the service and joint force must address today and in the near future:

• Unlicensed Long Term Evolution (LTE): The Army is challenged to fully deploy LTE capabilities to date and would like to include operating on host nation cellular networks—when available and prudent—into its network strategy.
• Spectrum Agility: For the Army to realize its future networking objectives, it must maximize its use of available of spectrum.
• Mobile Ad Hoc Vulnerabilities: The Army would like to better understand the cyberspace security and operations implications of a fully employed mobile ad hoc networking environment at the tactical edge.
• Reducing EMS Signatures: The Army envisions future command posts that emit minimal electromagnetic signatures, making them more difficult to detect.
  
  The AFCEA Technical Committee reviewed all of the abstracts, which are available online; all of the Army’s CIOs will receive the compendium.

Among the approaches to addressing the LTE issues, Booz Allen Hamilton proposes a way to deploy technology in the 5 GHz unlicensed bands to augment licensed spectrum.

Technica Corporation’s proposal tackles the spectrum agility challenge. The company has designed a communications interference monitor that uses sequential element-space processing and deep learning that collects data about the frequency extent and modulation of potential interference.

Michael Chung, head of government solutions at Bugcrowd Inc., proposes that the Army will better understand how adversaries could compromise mobile ad-hoc networks and preempt the threat. He describes a new cyber army comprising Intrusion Detection Support Units to monitor traffic flow and packet types to identify attacks and Vulnerability Assessment Units to focus on revealing vulnerabilities prior to and during deployments.

To reduce electromagnetic signatures, Kevin Helmick, president, Technical Control Consultants, suggests JERICHO, a solution that uses technology and tactical fiber to extend transmitters outside the wire and mitigate radio frequency-seeking weapon attacks.

Coverage of the AFCEA Army Signal Conference, which is taking place March 6-9 in Springfield, Virginia, is available on the SIGNAL Media website.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/61225583-4179-49f5-8b71-a19314e94cfe

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cc0a7235-1f17-4f46-a488-1c6bb9ccf5dc

Maryann Lawlor
AFCEA International
(703) 631-6179
[email protected]