US ground forces are preparing to fight for dominance in the information space. Such statements were made by representatives of the American army during the TechNet Augusta 2019 conference of the Association of Communications and Electronics Specialists of the Armed Forces, which ends on August 23 in Georgia.
In particular, this opinion is shared by General Paul Funk, head of the US Army Command for Training and Doctrine Development (TRADOC).
“Our approach to information excellence is too limited, not well developed and does not provide for proper coordination of efforts,” the US military said at a conference. “We at TRADOC are working to make information superiority one of the priorities in the planning of ground forces operations, to determine who relies on support, and to develop an information strategy.”
Decisive advantage
Commenting on his statement to SIGNAL Magazine, Funk said: “The information sector is one where we should be back in business.”
“We need to achieve superiority in it,” the commander reiterated.
A similar statement was made at the same conference by another senior military officer - Lieutenant General Stephen Fogarty, head of the US Army Cyber Command. He told the audience that he intends to seek to rename the structure that he leads into the Information and Military Command (Army Information Warfare Command). Such a name, he said, better reflects the specifics of the work of the US military.
- General Stephen Fogarty
- © US Army
“Based on the lessons learned over the previous couple of years and the experience gained at the cost of considerable operational efforts, we now recognize that we need the ability to conduct information operations. And this applies to issues of information war. Such is our current alignment, - the military declared. “Perhaps in the next two months we will contact the ministry to consider the issue of replacing the cyber command of the ground forces with the information and military command of the ground forces, since such a name is more consistent with the nature of the tasks assigned to me daily.”
Fogarty outlined the tasks currently facing his structure. Among them - the fight against misinformation and the conduct of similar operations by the Americans themselves.
“I need autonomous capabilities, both offensive and defensive. I should be able, in fact, to absorb what is distributed on the Internet in real time, to catch from this stream what is related to attempts to mislead and exert influence, and also to quickly turn all this in our favor to fulfill the same tasks, ”the military said.
As Director of the Center for Geopolitical Expertises Valery Korovin noted in an interview with RT, the reason for the special attention of the US military to the information space is the doctrine of "network wars", which has been guided by the Pentagon since the beginning of the 2000s.
“This doctrine implies the seizure of strategic control over entire states and peoples without the use of conventional weapons. It aims to create a perception of what is happening in the country and the world in such a way that American military strategists will need it. And they need to form public opinion and a majority position in favor of the United States and against the leading elites of a country. With the help of such technologies, the United States and shift modes. A special case of the manifestation of the technology of network wars is the “color revolution,” Korovin explained in an interview with RT.
Likely Opponents
General Funk called Russia one of the opponents that the US military, in his opinion, should oppose in the information field.
- Lieutenant General Paul Funk II
- © US Department of Defense
In particular, he referred to the opinion of a certain unnamed “Prime Minister of Iraq,” who allegedly stated that in response to any US action in the information sphere, “Russians spread disinformation in huge volumes - every day, across all channels and in all areas.”
Lieutenant General Fogarty, in turn, did not directly name the opponents, but emphasized that while his troops were confronting the "guys in sandals," that is, IG *, the US election was attacked by a "state actor."
As noted by Valery Korovin, the emergence of interest in information warfare precisely in the US Army indicates that the new command will be involved in the Russian direction.
“There is a certain specificity in the structure of the American military department. In this case, we are talking about informational dominance over land space, about efforts in the Eurasian space, and geopolitical land. In American logic, the ground forces should deal with this, said Korovin RT. - But there are structures similar in tasks to both the Navy and aviation. For example, a large number of cyber military units are literally on aircraft carriers that move around the world, connect to various networks, and conduct cyber attacks. ”
A similar point of view is shared by the head of the Center for the Study of Public Applied Problems of National Security, Alexander Zhilin.
“There will be a rise in misinformation directed against Russia and China. And consumers of information in these countries should clearly understand this, ”said Zhilin RT.
According to the expert, a typical example of such a propaganda campaign is the coverage of the US withdrawal from the INF Treaty, when Washington falsely tries to blame Russia.
“While the information cover is going on, the Americans are busy with their own affairs: they are withdrawing from the treaty, testing the rocket,” the political scientist claims.
Aggressive strategies
According to Lieutenant General Fogarty, by 2028 the new “information war” command will be sufficiently equipped to carry out its mission, reports the Breaking Defense portal, to which the general spoke in detail about his plans in the last days of the conference. At the same time, according to him, his cyber command has certain opportunities now. In particular, according to him, it is ready in some cases to respond to the cyber attack of the enemy in a matter of minutes.
- © JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP
Fogarty emphasized that he considers it necessary to conduct operations in cyberspace, located not only in the jurisdiction of the United States, but also on the territory of the enemy. At the same time, as the Breaking Defense portal reports, the general promised that his subordinates will respect American laws and are not going to hack Facebook or Twitter, since these are American companies.
But to other countries, their providers or users, he said, such restrictions do not apply.
Recall that earlier the American media have repeatedly reported on the cyber operations of the US military against Russian targets. So, in February, The Washington Post, citing an informed source, reported that the US Armed Forces cyber command “sent offline” the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency.
In June, The New York Times reported that the US military stepped up attacks on Russian energy networks, after which President Donald Trump called the actions of journalists "treason."
In turn, General Paul Funk considers it necessary to actively involve the military in conducting information campaigns in the United States and abroad. In particular, he said, the ground forces “need to resume work on projects like Voice of America **.
Experts have no doubt that the intentions of the US military are purely aggressive.
“The US military is not for defense,” said Alexander Zhilin. “The US Army is a structure aimed at intervening.”
At the same time, as the political scientist is sure, one can hope that "structures created under (Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. - RT ) Sergey Shoigu are able to protect the country from cyber attacks."
According to Valery Korovin, in order to effectively counter threats in the information sphere and the field of cybersecurity, you need to be able to strike yourself.
“There is no other way to defend, except to create a balance of retaliation,” the political scientist believes.
* “Islamic State” (ISIS, ISIS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.
** Media recognized as a foreign agent by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated 05.12.2017.