Each of the military services are reorganizing under a banner that\u2019s loosely referred to as information warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marine Corps\u2019 version of this idea is to follow a concept it is specifically calling \u201coperations in the information environment [OIE].\u201d It is purposefully not using the term \u201cinformation warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lt. Gen. Loretta Reynolds, the Corps\u2019 deputy commandant for information, is taking the lead in this area. She spoke recently with C4ISRNET\u2019s Mark Pomerleau to help unpack the Marines\u2019 information environment concept, explain how it\u2019s different from what other services are doing, and to explore what challenges lie ahead for the information environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C4ISRNET: <\/b>The other services are reorganizing under information warfare. What\u2019s the Marine Corps\u2019 approach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LT. GEN. LORETTA REYNOLDS: <\/b>You\u2019ve heard Commandant Gen. [David] Berger talk about the idea that the fight today is an information fight. What does that mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think it means, what is our message, how are we communicating our message, are we aggressive enough with our message, and do we understand how to measure the impact?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s like the art and the science of the information fight. The art would be how do you think about influence and are we moving aggressively enough in the right directions. I think the science is the cyber fight; it\u2019s the space fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We see our adversaries maneuvering in all these domains right now. They are maneuvering in space. You saw Gen. [Jay] Raymond\u2019s story about what the Russians are doing. Unsafe, unprofessional behavior. What are we going to do about it? We know what the cyber fight has looked like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I always go back to [former commandant] Gen. [Robert] Neller\u2019s comments about how we\u2019re going to have to fight to get to the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We call it \u201coperations in the information environment\u201d for a reason. We don\u2019t call it \u201cinformation warfare\u201d deliberately, because we believe firmly that we have to think differently about strategic communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How we talk about warfare to the American people, how we talk to them about what\u2019s happening, how we talk to them about the geography of this battlespace, if you will, that is to say that they\u2019re in it, is really important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C4ISRNET:<\/b> U.S. Cyber Command\u2019s VirusTotal effort is disclosing adversary malware. There\u2019s been ideas pushed out by 16th Air Force about potentially disclosing enemy missile locations through ISR. How does this idea of increased transparence fit with what the Marine Corps is doing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
REYNOLDS: <\/b>We have been very risk averse with regard to the information that we have. You can\u2019t deter anybody if you\u2019re the only one who knows that you have a capability. And, so, we really have to be more thoughtful about being able to share information that the world believes we have anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have a vice chairman [of the joint chiefs of staff] right now who is very thoughtful about this kind of thinking. We have adversaries right now who are going to push the limits and we have to expose that every time it happens. Every single time it happens, we have to expose it and we\u2019re too slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C4ISRNET: <\/b>How do you see this coming together? You created information command centers that would coordinate a lot of these issues at the Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) level. Do you see that as the focal point? Are the MEF Information Groups (MIGs) the tactical manifestation of what you\u2019re trying to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
REYNOLDS: <\/b>They are. The MIGs were built to be able to think about this in direct support of those MEF commanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where the naval integration piece of this comes in is how we, the Navy and the Marine Corps, get organized for this information fight at, say, the [Joint Force Maritime Component Command] level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because right now the joint force is trying to figure out, as you\u2019re developing Space Command and we already pulled out Cyber Command, how you integrate all this stuff at the combatant command level where all the authorities are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where can we, Navy and the Marine Corps, work together in this information fight? Is it inside the JFMCC? Can we just build an integrated staff inside the JFMCC in Pacific Command, in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
European Command and others, so that we can synthesize all<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of this and make it make sense? Because the danger is you begin to think differently. In terms of operational and strategic fires, you don\u2019t want to plan for it as a whole and then have it picked apart at the combatant command level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s where I think the JFMCC comes in. If we can get organized to think about this stuff holistically, the Navy has a ton of game and history and some of the science of this and I think where we can actually add a lot of value to them is in things like influence, perhaps information, and some of the psychological operations kinds of capabilities and the tactical. How can, for<\/p>\n\n\n\n
example, the infantry squad leader with an attached electronic warfare support team extend the range of naval fires for sensing and recon and the spectrum? That\u2019s where we want to add some value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C4ISRNET:<\/b> Do you see the need for an overall information warfare planner for the Marine Corps that would coordinate electronic warfare, cyber, communications strategy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
REYNOLDS: <\/b>The whole point of the information groups was that we believe that someone has got to be able to understand what\u2019s happening in the information environment for the commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone has got to be able to think broadly about what\u2019s happening in cyber, how is space going to impact your ability to go do what you want to do over there in that [Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations], what is that messaging component, how do we want to use deception. Somebody has to bring all this together in a comprehensive way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I use cyber as an example in this because sometimes we have treated cyber like a football game: it\u2019s offense and defense. But sometimes there\u2019s a soccer game going on and you may wish to allow something to happen, some intrusion, if it allows you access into someone. So, someone has to be able to accept that risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you think about risk in the information environment, you need to think who\u2019s looking at it, who\u2019s got the big picture and who\u2019s able to inform the commander. We have never deliberately planned for some of this stuff in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C4ISRNET: <\/b>From the Marine Corps\u2019 perspective, what is the big problem that you\u2019re hoping to solve as you\u2019re trying to thwart malicious behavior from adversaries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
REYNOLDS: <\/b>The most important thing we probably have to get after here in the near term is, no kidding, making this a part of who we are as Marines and how we think about war fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You don\u2019t add new war-fighting functions every day. [Former] Secretary [of Defense James] Mattis said information is a war fighting, battlespace function, the commandant said get it done and there\u2019s a lot of work associated with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s how do you training entry-level Marines to think about them as being a player in the information environment. That\u2019s that whole idea of playing defense every time you pick up your personal cellphone, getting your families ready for this fight, because they\u2019re going to be targets; how do you combat disinformation, because it\u2019s everything associated with who we are as Marines and how we think about this as actually part of the battlespace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s hard and new. How do you get it into the Marine Corps University system, how do you get it into [professional military education], how do you make sure that it\u2019s fed in with understanding into our experimentation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the challenges, quite frankly, that we\u2019re having is that, in the joint force, the language about this is all over the place. Is it [information operations], is it OIE, is it [information warfare]?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everything that we do sets a precedent as we\u2019re doing experimentation. We got a lot of good, smart people who are thinking about this, but at some point we\u2019ve got to begin to standardize some things across the MIGS, buy some tools and then just get after it so we can being to assess ourselves and actually make progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re in a good place right now. It\u2019s a good challenge for us to have because I think more and more people are thinking about this. But, at some point, we want it to sink in as this is doctrine, this is part of how we fight, and that whole culture change has been hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lt. Gen. Loretta Reynolds, the Corps\u2019 deputy commandant for information, explains why she shies away from the term “information warfare.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"10":{"categories":["daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"daily-news-roundup"}}},"categories":[106,29,14,55,32,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3268],"class_list":["post-11453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-information-warfare","category-information-warfare-smr","category-newsletters","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"SVHSZ2PO2ZG5PLEKAO6YEFYX3E","arc_canonical_url":"\/information-warfare\/2020\/04\/03\/5-questions-with-the-marine-corps-deputy-commandant-for-information\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n