The newly established Joint Force Headquarters-DoD Information Networks, or JFHQ-DoDIN, was launched in January to alleviate some of the pressure on U.S. Cyber Command and take over some of the operational aspects of DoD in cyberspace. Now, the organization is expanding at a rapid clip, according to its leader.
JFHQ-DoDIN over the next 30 to 45 days will launch three DoDIN provisional commands, supporting Europe, the Pacific and Central Command, Brig. Gen. Robert Skinner, JFHQ-DoDIN deputy commander, said June 17 at the AFCEA Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium in Baltimore.
“These organizations are going to be the forward element of the Joint Force Headquarters-DoDIN that will be supporting the combatant commander and their theater requirements,” Skinner said. “We still have a key relationships and key linkage between Joint Force Headquarters-DoDIN proper. But this way this organization will be in the combatant commands and understand the key missions and key terrain, and be able to provide situational awareness, operational planning support and capability for that combatant command while also maintaining the global link that Joint Force Headquarters-DoDIN is responsible for.”
Skinner said JFHQ-DoDIN is in the process of coordinating with a number of military organizations to hammer out how they will cooperate in cyberspace, but none more so than the service cyber components that support CyberCom, including Army Cyber Command, the 24th Air Force and Navy Fleet Cyber/10th Fleet.
“The service components are part of our initial operating capability scope we started back in January,” Skinner said. “They’ve been in existence anywhere from three to five years so we’ve taken a lot of great lessons learned [and] we’ve had great engagement to make sure we understand the relationship of things they’re doing and we’re doing and how we can help support their missions as they continue to mature.”
Specifically, JFHQ-DoDIN staff met with the service components in the past couple months in an operations and synchronization working group, a meeting that yielded some 70 areas of improvement in order to become more efficient and operationally effective. JFHQ-DoDIN officials also are establishing working relationships with the combatant commands to coordinate theater support, understand their requirements from a DoDIN perspective and “figure out how to synergistically work together to carry out assigned missions,” Skinner said.
The process is ongoing to figure out where exactly the military’s newest cyber element fits in with the rest of DoD – and who acts when, he noted.
“If there’s an activity that is more effectively executed through Joint Force Headquarters-DoDIN, we will engage. If there are functions that are better served or better suited for the service components, they will continue to do that. If there are entities and organizations that are better equipped to do other functions or capabilities, they will still do that,” Skinner said. “Our key role in a lot of this is command and control, and there’s a coordination element and a synchronization element.”
