WASHINGTON \u2014 The coming year will be one of great consequence for the U.S. Army and its goal of streamlining and insulating its sensitive networks, according to service leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army describes 2024 as the time when its unified network and related operations, known as UNO<\/a>, coalesce. The unified network of the future aligns the tactical links of deployed forces with the larger, less-mobile systems used at headquarters. It also reaches into the cloud, leveraging the digital ether to deliver data wherever it is most needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The seamless combination promises global connectivity \u2014 reflecting the scale at which the Defense Department expects to fight its next wars \u2014 and fewer isolated pathways to monitor, ultimately promoting cybersecurity. But the end goal is dependent on the Army and its commercial suppliers checking many moving boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUNO is our way of seeing the network,\u201d Mark Kitz, the leader of the Army\u2019s Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical, told C4ISRNET in an interview<\/a>. \u201cWhat is our radio configuration? What is our cybersecurity posture? Where are all my routers and my firewalls? UNO is a program to consolidate all of those configurations into one core platform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The office, which is tasked with developing, deploying and supporting soldiers\u2019 communications gear, spearheads UNO maturation. The organization took control of Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems\u2019 network-heavy assignments at the start of October. They included the integrated enterprise network, base emergency communications system, wideband enterprise satellite systems, and enterprise identity, credential and access management.<\/p>\n\n\n\t