Military Technology 05/2021

Special Feature MT 5/2021 · 71 they lead us in many respects, in terms of the skills. They’ve been doing this - certainly in the cyber-defence arena - for longer than us.” The integration of industry and the military can leverage one of the lat- ter’s most durable institutions: the reserves. The concept of volunteers taking time off from the ‘day job’ to add capability to their nation’s armed forces seems particularly well suited for cyber, as it allows the military to tap in to deep reservoirs of knowledge held in the private sector, without necessarily having to develop similarly comprehensive expertise in-house. “The unit’s quite unique in a way that it has a reserve sub-unit that actu- ally has industry experts,” said Lt Col Ed Swift, commander of the British Army’s 13th Signals Regiment. “Specialist Group Information Services bring a professional pool of expertise that we probably don’t need full- time regularly within defence, but we can pull on that resource to meet consultancy-style problems that we have and question sets that we have, and evolve at pace, in line with industry.” This works well from industry’s perspective, too. Nick Beecher, Vice President for Government, Defence and International Agencies within Leonardo’s UK cyber division, agreed with Swift that the short-notice standing-up of consultancy-like expertise adds value, not least because cyber experts at companies such as Leonardo are operating not just in defence and associated areas, but are also supplying cyber skills to sec- tors such as banking and insurance, where the threats may be even more pronounced (since much nefarious activity in cyberspace is designed primarily to steal money). The challenge for industry, he argued, lies in readying people without military experience – or clearances – for work in that shared, classified, environment. “If we’re moving into integrated operations 24/7 365, and under­ standing the grey area, then [the military is] going to run out of people,” he said. “We need to be able to have that mechanism of back-filling, but also passing that knowledge back so that we can understand where [the military is] going next and look at our own pipelines, to see what training we need to put into place that we can pull forward, so that we’re prepared as well.” Over its relatively brief life span as a distinct area of military activity, cyberspace has proved to be problematic on several different levels. At a fundamental one of concepts and nomenclature, is it the fifth domain, separate and distinct from but complementary to land, sea, air and space? Or is it a parallel zone of operations, enabling and per- meating the other four domains - a horizontal running through them, rather than a vertical standing beside them? After some flirtations with both possibilities, defence doctrine seems to be leaning more in the direction of cyber as a domain. But the reliance everything else has on digital networks means no cyber unit or force can operate effectively without understanding the other domains, about how cyber operations will affect activities elsewhere, and about what the other domains can do to impact cyber operationss. And, throughout, collabora- tion with industrial suppliers is particularly critical – perhaps unusually so. There can be few better examples of cross-domain operations than Britain’s first deployment of its new QUEEN ELIZABETH aircraft carrier. As well as integrating air and sea assets on board one platform-based sys- tem, the joint force is having to address cyber issues too. One of those, according to Rear Adm Nick Washer, Director of Operations in Defence Digital, a UK defence ministry department, is in understanding that the armed forces’ cyber footprint necessarily includes much data and infra- structure owned and operated by private suppliers. “There is an implied conscience and consciousness that their industrial supply chains are part of our cyber domain,” Washer stated during a panel discussion on cyber’s impact on combined operations at DSEI in London in September. “And so, we have created fora to share our understanding of what that means to our approach and outcomes, and we’ve equally used that as a means for developing SOPs [standard operating proce- dures]. We’ve also shared that with our allies. We’ve taken SOPs from our allies, we’ve taken understanding from our allies,. we’ve used our allies’ expertise in elements of our business.” “I think we have a healthy relationship with industry in terms of skills,” Col Caroline Woodbridge-Lewin, head of the information warfare group at the Defence Academy, told the panel. “What we’re doing in the specialist area is a blended approach to training. We have to go to industry because With a professional writing background that covers issues as diverse as cricket, music and crime fiction, Angus Batey has strong credibility in aerospace and C4ISR issues as well. He will become a regular contributor to Mönch publications. Angus Batey Maturing Cyberspace Operations Highlight Reliance On Military-Industrial Collaboration Combined operations - such as operating the F-35 LIGHTNING II from HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH - present particular challenges, and opportunities, for cyber warriors. (Photo: Lockheed Martin via BAE Systems)