Minimizing Real-Time Training at the Edge
The Marine Corps has unified from headquarters to the tactical edge, in part due to tremendous progress on network modernization.
“We’ve now convinced enough commanders not to try to run their own networks but perhaps allow us to have this unified network,” said Lt. Gen. Melvin “Jerry” Carter, the Marines’ deputy commandant for information. “And the team has done significant work when it comes to converging the networks.”
He calls that a “big win,” one which has the Marines looking to create professional communities around cyber and command, control, communications and computers (C4).
Meanwhile, the Navy wants to ultimately train sailors in these capabilities at a communications station and have them report to ships knowing that systems will work the same way, even if they’re disconnected. Recent tech developments have eliminated that constraint, and now the Navy needs to minimize real-time training at the edge, Tanner says.
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Lack of Interoperability Is a Cultural Problem
Another tactical edge challenge the Navy is working to solve is sharing information with the joint force while operations are underway.
“If I build a data-centric environment for one of the combatant commands, but yet the data that feeds that combatant command is not the same as another combatant command, I’m not truly globally integrated, which is the objective that we hope to achieve,” said Lt. Gen. David Isaacson, director of C4/cyber and CIO for the Joint Staff J6.
Interoperability is the area the Navy has spent the most time on and moved the needle on the least, “because it’s hard,” Tanner said.
Unstructured data needs to be structured and shared, a cultural challenge that must be overcome because sharing data first, assuming it’s not done indiscriminately, gets results, Tanner said.
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