U.S. adversaries and competitors, such as Russia and China, are restructuring their military forces around the concept of information, an approach that views cyber, space, electronic warfare and information operations as one discipline, not separate and siloed domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Defense is now following a similar approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In summer 2017 the Marine Corps reorganized its leadership and forces to reflect a new reality: that information will play an outsized role in any future conflict. As a result, the service has established a new deputy commandant for information, a three-star billet that will oversee all aspects of information warfare within the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In June, the Pentagon announced the appointment of Lt. Gen. Daniel O\u2019Donohue to serve in that job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn our Marine Corps Operating Concept, what we really drive to is information warfare,\u201d Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, commanding general at the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, said at the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s annual conference in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gen. Robert Nellar, commandant of the Marine Corps, formed an information warfare task force in November 2015 to lead development and integration of new information warfare capabilities, according to a service spokesman. That task force then led to the establishment of the deputy commandant of information in March and O\u2019Donohue officially assumed the role in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we went into Marine Corp Force 2025 and did all of our wargames, our experiments, our exercises, the major driver was the information warfare area \u2014 the information domain,\u201d Walsh told reporters in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How competitors view information<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marines\u2019 approach mirrors that of some of the United States\u2019 peer competitors. Russia and China have begun to organize their forces around information and started to write formal doctrine on information operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia views many facets of the information arena \u2014 including information operations, space\/counterspace, cyber, cyber-enabled psychological operations and electronic warfare \u2014 as critical to fighting and winning future conflicts, especially against the U.S., according to a recent report on Russia\u2019s military published by the Defense Intelligence Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s defense minister acknowledged in February that the federation has a new information warfare branch of its military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investments in so-called information capabilities serve a purpose for a more \u201cinformatized\u201d military, according to the Department of Defense\u2019s 2017 report to Congress on China\u2019s military developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe [People\u2019s Liberation Army] conducts military exercises simulating these operations and likely views conventional and cyber operations as means of achieving information dominance,\u201d the report says. \u201cPLA writings suggest [electronic warfare], cyberspace, deception, counterspace, and other operations during wartime could deny an adversary\u2019s use of information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s Strategic Support Force, created in 2015, appears to envelope the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army\u2019s space, cyber and EW missions, the report notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 21st century, warfare has become as much cognitive as it is kinetic, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, then the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a small group of reporters in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using the Russian incursion and eventual annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine as a case study, Stewart outlined how Russia exploited its \u201cinformation\u201d capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In February 2014, Russian leaders shaped the information environment by proclaiming the military would defend ethnic Russians, seize key locations and resort to information warfare and cyberattacks to cripple communication channels and media outlets, Stewart said in an August keynote. By the time a referendum in Crimea was held a month later, Stewart explained, Ukraine\u2019s decision space was gone. Russia already controlled the peninsula, and did so without firing many shots. Stewart is now the deputy commander of Cyber Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The night vision advantage<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marine Corps leadership views the focus on information as a gamechanger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat that means for us is finally [we have] the ability to integrate a lot of the information environment-related activities under one roof,\u201d Brig. Gen. Dennis Crall, director of C4 and CIO of the Marine Corps, said of the new role during a presentation Oct. 23. \u201cBefore we hadn\u2019t practiced them at all. Or we practiced them so disparately you couldn\u2019t find a common design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now Marine leaders expect a more cohesive approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSignals intelligence, cyber, electronic warfare, information operations, artificial intelligence, cognitive learn; those kinds of capabilities are really what\u2019s going to give us the advantage on the battlefield,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just as night vision capabilities revolutionized operations at night, he sees information warfare making the same kind of difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInformation warfare is going to be our new night,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, the capabilities and disciplines that will exist under the new deputy commandant, according to Crall, include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Military deception aimed at misleading adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Electromagnetic warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Military information support operations, aimed at coercing enemies to take certain action (previously, these actions were left primarily to other services, but the Marines want this capability organically in all units).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Operational security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marines\u2019 approach has the blessing of senior Pentagon leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis wrote a memo in September endorsing the decision of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to designate information as a new seventh joint function, according to a DoD spokesperson. Joint functions, according to DoD\u2019s doctrine, are related capabilities and activates that are grouped together to help integrate, synchronize and direct joint operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This designation has served as a validation of sorts for the Marine Corps\u2019 reorganization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGood \u2026 on the Marine Corps, good on the deputy commandant for information for being out in front in leading that effort,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cBy standing up the new deputy commandant for information \u2026 bringing in anything that\u2019s in the information domain under that deputy commandant to be able to develop those policies and strategy in that area, I think we\u2019re right in line with where the department is going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Marine Corps has reorganized its leadership and forces to reflect a new reality: that information will play an outsized role in any future conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":80496,"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":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"6":{"categories":["your-marine-corps","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-marine-corps"}}},"categories":[106,29,16,32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3268],"class_list":["post-27447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-it-networks","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RYCMPHU53FDZTOGY5YOR4TH3YY","arc_canonical_url":"\/it-networks\/2017\/12\/05\/why-the-marine-corps-needed-a-new-deputy-commandant\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n