WASHINGTON: Rep. Jim Langevin, chair of the HASC cyber, innovative technologies, and information systems subcommittee, pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin today on why cyber warriors don’t have their own service secretary and when the Pentagon will get its house in order on the electromagnetic spectrum.
Langevin, noting cybersecurity is “the national security challenge of the 21st Century,” asked Austin why the US recognizes five domains of warfare, but the top civilian leader for cyber is significantly junior in rank to the service secretaries who train, equip, and buy weapons for all other domains.
“The Department of Defense officially recognizes five domains of warfare,” Langevin observed. “For four of those domains, the senior civilian is a service secretary. Cyber has a deputy assistant secretary, which is four rungs lower than the other warfighting domains. Why does this make sense, especially when US service members are in contact with and engaging our adversaries in cyberspace daily?”
Austin dodged the question. His reply: “Cyber is obviously incredibly important to us. I think we’re very effective in this domain, and currently, I think we have the right oversight for our cyber efforts.”
Austin mentioned that he had recently met with CYBERCOM and NSA chief Gen. Paul Nakasone to review programs and speak to CYBERCOM troops. Within the military’s operational chain of command, Nakasone reports directly to Austin.
“I’m very impressed with the capabilities [Nakasone] continues to develop,” Austin said.
Austin also noted the $10.4 billion for cyber requested in this year’s budget request. “We’re investing in cyber. It’s important to us, and it will remain important to us.”
Langevin also expressed “concern” over how DoD is addressing electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO), also known as electronic warfare. Langevin noted that US adversaries continue to invest in technologies to “dominate the domain while we continue to consider it an afterthought.”
Langevin asked Austin when Congress can expect the 2020 Electromagnetic Superiority Strategy implementation plan and what Austin viewed as “the first step to regaining [the] advantage.”
“The first step to making sure we maintain an advantage,” Austin replied, “is to make sure we have a coordinated effort across the board to identify what the threats are and to make sure we have the right capabilities to be dominate in that space. Our vice chairman [Gen. John Hyten] is currently leading this effort for our forces, and I’m confident that as he works his way through this, along with our deputy secretary [Kathleen Hicks], I will come back with some good recommendations, and we’ll implement those that are appropriate.”
The exchange between Langevin and Austin came during a hearing of the full House Armed Services Committee on the 2022 defense budget.
Langevin has long advocated increasing investment and expanding capabilities in cyber and EMSO. In May, while speaking at the Hudson Institute, Langevin said he and Rep. Don Bacon are urging the Pentagon to appoint a flag officer on the Joint Staff and a senior civilian to lead EMSO.
At a hearing in March, Langevin’s subcommittee received a sobering assessment on the current state of EMSO.
One expert characterized US EMSO capabilities as having barely advanced since the end of the Cold War, although EMSO is viewed by many strategists and experts as integral to enabling nearly every aspect of current and future warfighting, including Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2).
Without EMS and cyber dominance over adversaries, many military technologies and operations could be seriously degraded or all together paralyzed, experts have testified.
While the US has made serious strides in cyber over the past decade, EMSO remains the “most unheralded warfighting space” within the US defense community, Hudson Institute expert Bryan Clark told Langevin’s subcommittee this spring. Clark was the primary author of Winning the Invisible War: Gaining an Enduring U.S. Advantage in the Electromagnetic Spectrum.
The Pentagon’s most recent EMSO strategy — the third in eight years — was published in October, but Langevin and others in Congress remain frustrated with DoD’s inability to figure out how to implement it.
“[The 2013 and 2017 efforts] weren’t bad strategies,” the Government Accountability Office’s Joseph Kirschbaum told Langevin’s subcommittee this spring. Kirschbaum was primary author of the December 2020 report, EMS Operations: DoD Needs to Address Governance and Oversight Issues to Ensure Superiority. Kirschbaum said DoD simply failed to implement the 2013 and 2017 strategies because of “bureaucratic and organizational hindrances.” He added, “GAO thinks this pattern [of bureaucratic hindrance] threatens potential success of the 2020 strategy.”
Meanwhile, William Conley, former director for electronic warfare in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told Langevin’s subcommittee the US has fallen behind due to a lack of tech investment and innovation. Conley also said DoD has failed to raise EMSO to a strategic level versus viewing it merely as a means to achieving tactical outcomes.
Conley then contrasted the DoD’s and PLA’s approach to EMSO and cyber. China, through its Strategic Support Force — an equal mix of EMSO, cyber, and space capabilities — has put the force on equal footing with its army, navy, and air force, Conley noted.
“What [China has] done operationally is really pretty darn impressive,” Conley told Langevin and the subcommittee. “The strategic question we’re faced with today is: How do we want to compete?”
Conley’s observations are likely, in part, what prompted Langevin’s question to Austin on DoD’s five domains of warfare and the rationale underlying the current structure of civilian leadership.
China is not the only adversary that has been advancing EMSO capabilities while the US has stalled. As Breaking D readers know, Russia has been a leader in such activities in Ukraine and the Middle East. In 2018, then-Special Operations Command chief Gen. Raymond Thomas characterized Syria as “The most aggressive electronic warfare environment on the planet from our adversaries.”
