{"id":14413,"date":"2021-06-14T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/06\/14\/founder-of-army-tactical-network-team-reflects-on-tenure-future-of-joint-war-fighting\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:31:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:31:52","slug":"founder-of-army-tactical-network-team-reflects-on-tenure-future-of-joint-war-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/interviews\/2021\/06\/14\/founder-of-army-tactical-network-team-reflects-on-tenure-future-of-joint-war-fighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Founder of Army tactical network team reflects on tenure, future of joint war fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 For the last three and a half years, the U.S. Army\u2019s Network Cross-Functional Team focused on delivering new tools to soldiers<\/a> to beef up the service\u2019s tactical network capabilities. After delivering the first set to tackle immediate network gaps, known as Capability Set \u201821, the two-star general who launched and shaped the team has retired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, the Network CFT formulated its plan to equip soldiers while working with industry and acquisition partners at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, to identify future technologies that the Army needs so it can build a resilient battlefield network. The team is currently fielding Capability Set \u201821<\/a>, designing Capability Set \u201923<\/a> and planning Capability Set \u201825, all focused on supporting the Joint All-Domain Command and Control<\/a> concept, or JADC2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallagher retired at the end of May and will be replaced by Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey<\/a>, the current chief information officer\/J6 of U.S. Central Command and former commander of the Hawaii-based 516th Signal Brigade. Rey will bring with him a mix of Middle East and Asia-Pacific experience. In an exit interview with C4ISRNET, Gallagher reflected on his time as the Network CFT director, talked about technology in which the Army must invest and identified hurdles that must be overcome to enable JADC2. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The network is the backbone of the Army\u2019s Project Convergence exercise, multidomain operations and JADC2. What were the Network CFT\u2019s biggest accomplishments over last few years?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would say alignment on the priorities and really driving outcomes to deliver real capability \u2014 and in fairly short order. We were able to take the guidance in the very early days from the Army senior leaders and turn it into tangible result and get capabilities out the door, align the resources that allowed us to accomplish our strategy and really pull stakeholders together with the collective alignment to the Army senior leader priorities so that they move at a pace they were uncomfortable with and deliver outcomes they never dreamed possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you think soldiers can communicate now better than before the Network CFT was set up?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just having come off about a couple different events<\/a> where I\u2019ve been able to see the results. It\u2019s not perfection; we have not delivered the perfect solution. But we have a solution that is significantly better than what they had in terms of the options provided to our maneuver formations with the integrated tactical network. The radios have multi-connectivity, a multitude of waveforms that they can leverage to their advantage. The mesh networking waveform that we\u2019re using now is significantly more scalable and more survivable and provides better throughput and opportunities for voice and data communications that are unlike anything we\u2019ve had in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From an opportunity to provide options to the maneuver force, I think we\u2019re in a much better place. [Before] the shared situational understanding [capability we delivered to] a maneuver brigade … it could take hours for them to get 100 percent accountability of their forces<\/a> as they\u2019re spread out all over the drop zone. With the integrated tactical network, within minutes they can basically have visibility where everybody\u2019s at, and then folks rally within hours. Before it could take hours to just determine where everybody was because [a commander] didn\u2019t have that same level of situational awareness. From that perspective, we made huge strides.<\/p>\n\n\n\t