The next conflict likely won’t start with bullets or missiles at a distant overseas location, but instead could be a cyber strike on the homeland.
“The first shots will be fired in the cyber domain,” said Maj. Gen. Jake Kwon, director of strategic operations for the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff. “The Army has to think differently, and we have to fight faster.”
Kwon spoke Tuesday alongside Lt. Gen. Jeth Rey, deputy chief of staff G-6, and Brandon Pugh, principal cyber advisor to the secretary of the Army, at the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington.
To move faster on cyber, Kwon said several initiatives must be met. First on the list is artificial intelligence-driven mission command, with the top goal to achieve decision dominance.
Using AI will be critical to operate at the speed needed to react to cyber threats, Kwon said.
Next is pushing commanders to see a data-centric Army, treating data as a strategic asset. Kwon likened data to the new ammunition, both critical pieces of the larger warfighting puzzle.
Third is that training must evolve beyond linear scenarios and move into a contested environment, and leaders must push units to outpace the enemy in their battlefield actions.
Lastly, Kwon noted that with the division as the new unit of action in the Army’s plans for large-scale combat operations, much experimenting will happen at that level. As a division goes into the dirt at one of the combat training centers, cyber work will feature prominently in what leaders will learn from each rotation.
Pugh warned that commanders can’t see cyber as an isolated capability performed by certain cyber commands or units. Division and corps commanders have access to these tools and must use them in conjunction with other assets, such as electronic warfare, he said.
Rey tied together the non-kinetic nature of the fight, noting that units must be able to fight from their forts to their ports, all of which will require resilient cyber capabilities and practices.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.