WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is incorporating observations gathered from the Russia-Ukraine war into its massive networking-and-technologies exercise known as Project Convergence, but is wary of drawing too many conclusions too soon.
While “there’s already a few” things “that we are looking at, especially how does the threat operate,” the Army has “to be very cautious not to get the wrong lessons, because I think there’s still a lot to be learned from” the conflict, Brig. Gen. Guy Jones said Oct. 10 at the Association of the U.S. Army annual conference.
Jones leads the Army’s Futures and Concepts Center, an organization closely linked to the service’s massive overhaul of in-the-field equipment and behind-the-scenes digital infrastructure.
“Both in simulation and our live threat,” Jones said, “we’ve adjusted now over the last three months on some of the tactics, techniques and procedures that we’ve seen.”
Project Convergence, the Army’s contribution to the Pentagon’s vision of seamless military information sharing, or Joint All-Domain Command and Control, kicks off in October and continues through November. This year’s event, known as PC 22, features scenarios focused on both the Indo-Pacific and Europe, a recognition of the threats posed by China and Russia.
Jones on Monday described the scenarios as maritime-centric and land-centric — the sort of environments encountered in a fight for the Pacific or a fight for Eastern Europe.
PC 22 is the first to directly involve international allies, namely the U.K. and Australia. Partnerships are critical to besting technologically savvy or larger adversaries, officials say.
“We’ve got to make sure that we have a network that they can have, and work with us, to collectively pass that same type of target quality data, so we can leverage their capabilities along with the joint force to provide an overwhelming win,” Jones said.
Generals spearheading the Army’s network modernization previously said Russia’s renewed invasion, launched in February, affirmed their work. Both cyber and electronic warfare tools are employed in Ukraine, and lines of communication are prime targets.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth in May similarly said the war underlines the value of secure communications as well as the hazards posed by indiscriminate cell phone use on the battlefield.
“We are very much looking every single day, in real time, at what’s happening in Ukraine and what we’re seeing with the Russian military, and trying to glean as many lessons learned as we can for what we think that means for the Army in the future,” Wormuth said at the time.
Colin Demarest was a reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covered military networks, cyber and IT. Colin had previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — namely Cold War cleanup and nuclear weapons development — for a daily newspaper in South Carolina. Colin is also an award-winning photographer.
