Q&A: Brigadier General Carroll F . Pollett
LandWarNet Transformer
Strengthening Operational Responsiveness and Security
Brigadier General Carroll F . Pollett
Commander
Army Network Enterprise
Technology Command
9th Signal Command (Army)
Brigadier General Carroll F. Pollett was commissioned in October 1976 through the Infantry Officer Candidate School. Before taking command of the Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), he served as the commanding general of 5th Signal Command, deputy chief of staff, G6 and chief information officer for the U.S. Army Europe. Prior to that assignment, he served as the principal director for operations and commander of global operations, Defense Information Systems Agency. Pollett served on the Joint Staff as the division chief for C4 requirements and assessments, and he also commanded the 3rd Signal Brigade at Fort Hood, Texas.
Other key assignments include director, joint and Army operations, Office of the Director of Information Systems for Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems; deputy division chief and systems integrator, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations & Plans; commander, 123rd Signal Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division; deputy commander and brigade S-3, 35th Signal Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps; executive officer, 327th Signal Battalion; personnel assignments officer, Signal Branch, Military Personnel Center; S2/S3, 17th Signal Battalion, V Corps; commander, D Company, 426th Signal Battalion and signal information officer, Fort Bragg, N.C.; and operations NCO, 127th Signal Battalion, 7th Infantry Division.
Pollett graduated from Georgia Southern College with a Bachelor of Science degree, and earned master’s degrees in business administration from Central Michigan University and in national resource strategy from the National Defense University. His military education includes the Signal Officer basic and advanced courses, Telephone Digital Officer’s Course, Joint Telecommunications Course, Command and General Staff College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Q: How would you describe the most significant changes taking place in the Army’s Land Warrior Network [LandWarNet] today?
A: There are really three essential elements of our current LandWarNet transformation. The first is in the way NETCOM’s transformed Signal forces are now directly supporting warfighters at every echelon. What many people may not realize is that the very last of the Army’s traditional corps-level Signal brigades will inactivate shortly after III Corps returns from Operation Iraqi Freedom in early 2008. In fact, all of the active component division Signal battalions have already inactivated, with the divisions now receiving their support from Joint Network Node- [JNN] enabled companies embedded within their brigade combat teams (BCTs) and special troops battalions.
What this means is all of the Army’s tactical Signal formations above company level [with the sole exception of the 112th Signal Battalion, which supports Army Special Operations Command] are now assigned to NETCOM/9th Signal Command [Army]. In addition to their theater-level roles, NETCOM’s expeditionary brigades and battalions will be serving in direct operational support of joint and coalition task forces; corps headquarters and units; BCTs that are not yet JNN-enabled; and non-divisional units. This support is required not only for deployed forces, but also for the routine training of these units at home station and at our national training centers. NETCOM’s transformed battalions have been built with the same modular design and the same IP-based equipment, and are run by soldiers with the same military occupational specialties as the signal elements embedded within the BCTs. This means that for the first time ever, expeditionary signal elements are able to operate with a total commonality of skills and capabilities from the joint task force level all the way down through the lowest tactical echelons of the BCT.
Our first operational experience with this new construct will come this fall when the 11th Signal Brigade deploys to support XVIII Airborne Corps throughout Iraq. As is standard with most Army deployments under the Army Force Generation process today, the 11th will actually be a task force consisting of the brigade headquarters and one battalion from Fort Huachuca, a battalion out of Fort Gordon, Ga., and a battalion from Germany. I am confident this will be a very successful operation, as this brigade task force has already completed a successful mission rehearsal exercise with the corps, and considering that NETCOM forces have worked closely with the corps and divisional units at contingency and forward operating bases throughout Southwest and Central Asia during the entirety of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
The next critical element is the way we execute network operations, or “NetOps,” taking on a more aggressive effort to set conditions for operations, rather than simply reacting to them, seeing deeper than we ever have before into the fabric of the LandWarNet, understanding better what it is we’re seeing, and anticipating network performance, operational requirements and threats. This allows us to effect immediate change and take deliberate action to reallocate network resources and successfully defeat network attacks. It is critical that everything we’re doing here, we’re doing within the Joint NetOps framework. If we were not, we wouldn’t be operating as part of a true joint enterprise. It’s bigger than just the LandWarNet.
The third element is the transformation of the operational base and the development of what is called the “Global Collaborative Environment.” This environment is underpinned by an alwayson, secure, worldwide communications network, tied closely to the military orders process, and enabled by Network Service Centers, which provide rapid delivery, integration, storage, staging and maturation of the data that forms the warfighter’s knowledge of the friendly, enemy and environmental situation. At the end of the day, our warfighters really only want one thing—rapid and reliable access to the network, their data and applications from stable and unchanging computer configurations as they move from home station, through mission rehearsals, and into theater operations. This is the capability that Network Service Centers are being designed to provide.
Q: What is a “Network Service Center” made up of, and how do they differ from the way the LandWarNet functions today?
A: The Network Service Center [NSC] construct represents an evolution in how the LandWarNet operates today, one that takes a more holistic perspective on how we coordinate and leverage three main pillars—global connectivity, Area Processing Centers [APCs] and NetOps. NSCs will become the major operating organizations of a regionally based, global network infrastructure that brings those pillars together under a common C2 construct, even though the three components of each NSC may be separated by significant geographic distance.
The connectivity piece is the part we’re most familiar with. What’s different today is that global connectivity has been greatly strengthened by the GIGBandwidth Expansion [GIG-BE] effort. In addition, we are currently installing Fixed Regional Hub Node [FRHN] capabilities in Southwest Asia and Europe, with plans in place for the Pacific and CONUS. FRHNs will leverage existing STEP and Teleport locations and GIG-BE capabilities to provide robust connectivity and bandwidth-on-demand for JNN-enabled forced-entry and maneuver forces. Each FRHN is capable of supporting more than three divisions, either through their embedded JNN systems or JNN-equipped NETCOM expeditionary units. FRHNs are designed to provide much more than just satellite connectivity, however. They will also house the primary voice, e-mail and application servers for the expeditionary forces. A key benefit of this capability is that it will enable those forces to operate with significantly less support structure directly in the war zone.
APCs represent the enterprise-level processing capability of the LandWarNet, enabling prioritized, global information exchange between authorized users while greatly enhancing our ability to defend the LandWarNet. NETCOM currently has prototype APCs in operation in Europe and Korea, and we are in the process of activating the first two full-scale APC facilities in CONUS. These CONUS APCs are already providing network services to users at Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., and we will expand those services to installations throughout CONUS, beginning with Fort Riley, Kan., and Fort Huachuca, Ariz., within the next six months. In order to produce maximum efficiency, we are co-locating APCs at existing Department of Defense facilities on the GIG-BE backbone.
APC architecture can be grouped into four main areas: robust network infrastructure connection capabilities enabling universal connections between intelligence, business and warfighting users; a secured server infrastructure using virtual machine technologies, thin client solutions, PC and server monitoring and compliance, server security and application security services; protected storage management with dynamic alternate site fail-over capabilities; and a comprehensive network security fabric. Our intent is that the APCs will host the global force management servers that form the cornerstone of the digital identity of friendly forces, enabling us to link individuals and organizations with the exact data and applications they require, as determined by the user’s location, task organization, combat role, and network circumstances. Consolidated services enable us to organize data to more readily reveal or discover patterns and trends, tailoring delivery and storage based upon a commander’s critical information requirements.
Network operations form the third, and most critical, pillar in this construct. NETCOM is the sole organization charged with the mission to operate and defend the Army’s portion of the GIG. We accomplish this through our global and regional Network Operations and Security Centers [NOSCs], fully linked with the corresponding elements of 1st Information Operation Command’s Computer Emergency Response Teams. Together, they analyze more than 20 million network events every day, and defend against thousands of incidents each year. In addition, we have partnered with our counterparts in national intelligence and law enforcement organizations, the Army Reserve and National Guard, MEDCOM and INSCOM NOSCs, as well as critical organizations within the program management community, to dramatically strengthen operational responsiveness and security across the LandWarNet. Our NOSCs translate the standard five-paragraph operations order into the necessary supporting network requirements. Network operators can then more effectively and dynamically align LandWarNet capability, capacity and performance priorities in synch with the needs of the maneuvering forces, enabling commanders to maintain operational tempo and execute command and control regardless of phase of operation or geographic location.
Q: How will this change the way the Army operates?
A: This construct will tie together the Army’s tactical formations, installations and network service providers more tightly than they have ever been before. The ultimate goal is to improve our ability to dynamically adjust network priorities and global availability and to enforce security, policies and standards, enabling warfighting forces to seamlessly unplug from home station and plug back in at a national training center, while en-route, and at the objective area, accessing data and applications reliably through all of these phases. It should do all of this while also facilitating dynamic task organization and reorganizations, without the need for reconfiguring systems at any stage or location.
A key enabling concept under this construct is the way we envision a significantly enhanced relationship between Directorates of Information Management [DOIMs], G-6’s, and NETCOM operational base LandWarNet operators. We refer to this activity as “sponsorship,” in which NETCOM will have elements whose sole function is ensuring the synchronization and coordination of operational requirements to network operations. This will guarantee that connectivity, services, applications and data are staged and readily available at the right place and at the right time as expeditionary forces move through all joint operational phases.
Q: What other challenges do you see facing the LandWarNet today?
A: I see the need to continue improving our processes for operating and defending the LandWarNet in CONUS, where, within the next few years, more than 80 percent of the Army’s expeditionary forces will be stationed. There are currently almost 450 separate entry points to the LandWarNet in CONUS providing network services to the installations that support force generation, sustainment and projection, operated by DOIMs belonging to more than a dozen separate organizations. Today, we control and defend this complex CONUS network via a series of technical instructions issued by USSTRATCOM’s Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations [JTF-GNO] center and our own Army Global NOSC.
These “technical channel” processes have proven to be adequate to date, but as our reliance on increasingly complex networks and the tenacity of the threat continue to evolve, we must put in place a process that will provide more consistent and responsive operating and security practices across this critical and dynamic theater. The Army’s Single DOIM Action Plan is a great step in achieving improved network operations and efficiencies, and the APC effort will take that even further by greatly reducing the number of network points of presence that must be defended. NETCOM is actively working to implement a plan that will achieve these goals of improved C2 and security for the CONUS LandWarNet, as well as to strengthen the sponsorship process.
Q: What types of new or unique technical solutions will be required to enable this vision?
A: Our goal is to enable global “plug-and-play” and unfettered access to data and applications, while simultaneously ensuring network and information security. At times, these two goals may seem diametrically opposed, but we believe the proper application of technology will enable us to realize this vision. The key is to take a holistic look, from the very beginning, to design and build security into every portion of the network, rather than simply bolting solutions on. Most importantly, this means improving secure network access controls and hardening the end points with integrated firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-virus/antispyware, and policy-based system management. We look for comprehensive, host-based solutions that will instantaneously enable us to control and monitor the state of our servers and workstations, identifying anomalies as soon as they arise and electronically reporting them to our NetOps centers. We look for solutions that not only permit us to stage data more effectively, but also enable us to “virtualize” capabilities (applications and data together) with dynamic rule sets for access. And, we continue to need solutions that let us move robust IP traffic over satellite, facilitating the transfer of more data over less bandwidth—especially those solutions that enable dynamic prioritization of traffic.
Q: Any closing thoughts?
A: Yes. As I think about all the changes taking place across NETCOM and the LandWarNet, I am continually reminded of those things that remain constant. And that is, foremost, our people— soldiers, DA civilians and contractors, as well as their families, who are the true unsung heroes of our Army. Our NETCOM team members do an absolutely amazing job, day-in and day-out, in the wide variety of tasks that are enabling this transformation of the Army’s LandWarNet to occur. We, in NETCOM, have experienced death and serious injury due to combat activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, in both our soldier and contractor force. This is a serious business we’re in and we must never lose sight of the mandate to develop and care for our people. ♦
