By Geoff Fein
The Navy Friday took a step into the battlespace of the future as the service officially opened the doors to the new Fleet Cyber Command (FLTCYBERCOM), where victory in the new domain will be predicated on information and intelligence instead of firepower, a top Navy service said.
In addition to standing up FLTCYBERCOM, the Navy also recommissioned the 10th Fleet, which was originally created to counter German U-boat operations in the Atlantic. The 10th Fleet was decommissioned in June 1945.
Vice Adm. Barry McCullough will head up both organizations.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead has made defending the Navy’s networks a top priority and put achieving the integration and innovation necessary for warfighting dominance across the full spectrum of operations across the maritime, cyberspace and information domains as one of his top 10 guidance plans.
The cyber domain is evolving, is fast paced, and actions are measured in milliseconds, Roughead told attendees at the formal stand-up of FLTCYBERCOM, Friday, at the National Security Agency.
“Actions in [the cyber domain] need not destroy anything,” he said.
Just the thought of a cyber attack can “shake our confidence and disorient us,” Roughead added.
Even with the Navy’s efforts to establish FLTCYBERCOM, Roughead acknowledged this is just the beginning.
“There is still a great deal more we must do,” he said. “The command must move quickly.”
Drawing comparisons between the 10th Fleet’s original purpose and the new mission it must pursue, McCullough told the gathering that just as the 10th Fleet was established to take on the new challenge of anti-submarine warfare, the Navy today must now operate in a new global commons.
“The nuance of the cyber domain as a battlespace is yet to be determined,” he said.
With many of the sailors and civilians who will make FLTCYBERCOM their new home present, McCullough told them that the cyber domain has a unique set of challenges, including the requirement for real-time command and control.
“To maintain an advantage, we must train, develop and experiment to achieve non-kinetic effects,” he said.
“How do you do real-time network management and information assurance,” McCullough said at a media briefing following his speech.
“This is a huge undertaking for all the services to get this,” he added.
McCullough said he has half his staff in place and that finding people with the talent and skills sets is tough because of the competition from not only other government agencies, but the private sector as well.
“We are working through getting the staff flushed out,” he added.
In the near-term, the Navy needs to get the right tools and displays to get situational awareness, McCullough said.
“We have to get our arms around this,” he added. “The plethora of information can saturate human beings.”
FLTCYBERCOM’s objective is to coordinate network operations in real-time, develop a dynamic defense and defend networks against intrusions, McCullough told reporters.
FLTCYBERCOM will eventually fall under USCYBERCOM, which will be part of the United States Strategic Command, McCullough noted.
USCYBERCOM will be located at Fort Meade, Md.
Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, currently the director of the NSA, has been nominated to lead the new command.