Despite the cultural issues and the schisms between the trigger pullers and the computer individuals, networking is war fighting. In an operational sense, this is what the Defense Information Systems Agency is focused on, its commander Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn said May 3 during the opening keynote of the C4ISRNET Conference.
"When talking about war fighting, what do I mean by that? Unmanned aerial vehicles — we've got to make sure all the networks are up and operational all the time," he said. "If they're not up and operational, you have a problem with the UAV flying in an attack mode. Our UAVs, they do attacks, so that's war fighting — networks are war fighting."
Lynn also discussed ballistic missile defense, noting the audience may have heard about this in the news recently. All the things that command and control the intercontinental ballistic missiles rely on networks. "That’s war fighting and we have to make sure it works — that’s what we do," Lynn said.
Additionally, Lynn noted that both war fighters and senior leaders rely on command and control devices. This includes cellphones, which senior leaders use when they travel to communicate. They have to work and be wired tight, Lynn said.
Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.
