WASHINGTON \u2014 Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton leafed through his notebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was sitting alone on stage during the last day of the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s annual conference<\/a>, held in early October in Washington. The Army officer had just been asked about remarks made by the service\u2019s newly sworn-in chief of staff, Gen. Randy George.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnder continuous transformation, he did say the No. 1 priority and focus area is the network,\u201d Stanton said, looking up from his notes and smiling. \u201cOur Army senior leadership understands the significance of being able to move the right data to the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stanton serves as both the commander of Fort Gordon and its Cyber Center of Excellence, a Georgia schoolhouse where troops are drilled on everything from electronic warfare to communications capabilities to cyberspace operations<\/a>. The teachings there are increasingly important \u2014 especially so, after George named networking upgrades the Army\u2019s most pressing modernization endeavor, citing lessons plucked from the battlefields of Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While sophisticated, secure connectivity has for years been a focal point for the service, alongside other priorities such as long-range precision fires, air and missile defense, and aviation, it was not necessarily as high profile. Artillery, missile interceptors and helicopters have a splashy presence; the invisible tubes and tethers that enable military information sharing do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\t