Army G-6 to undergo restructuring, emphasize unified network goals

TECHNET AUGUSTA 2024 — The Army’s G-6 office will go through some restructuring in line with the service’s long-standing effort of creating a unified network, a project that breaks down and combines the service’s tactical and enterprise sectors, a senior official said today.

“If we can do 90 percent of our patching from a single location across the broader Army enterprise, why do we need a ton of cyber defenders at the local level?” asked G-6 Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. John Morrison. “Repurpose them. Have them do something crazy like focus on units and improve the quality of support that we we need and owe to our Army and owe at the division level.”

Morrison was referring to what he saw as a problem in which outer “tactical” networks were separate from more central “enterprise” networks, creating needless duplication when changes were needed to both.

To solve that problem and others, Morrison said the G-6, which implements command, control, communications, cyber operations and networks for the Army, specifically needs to “repurpose” its combat power and said that the office’s structure needs to be cooperative and consolidated. It should operate as a true division instead of how it is currently operating — a way he compared to “a bunch of Brigade Combat Team architectures that we kludge together.”

Morrison didn’t detail exactly how he envisioned the G-6 evolving — and said changes will be subject to approval by senior leadership — but he did say that some would come with the broader Army’s force design update, an initiative that’s meant to modernize and transform the service to “better face future threats.” He said it will reestablish division signal battalions within the Army, and Morrison said he’s working with the Cyber Center of Excellence and the “broader Army” to implement this FDU. His office will be working through standing up the redesign by the end of the year if not in the next 60 to 90 days. 

The Global Cyber Center will ensure that the unified network project, otherwise known as the Unified Network Operations strategy, is operational in all theaters, Morrison said. He said as the unified network strategy plays out, this will help the G-6 reorganize “over the course of time.”

Morrison said that the cybersecurity division of G-6 will likely be reorganized first.

“I think that is a near term target that if we really maximize the capabilities that we have inside the Army tenet, we’re going to be able to accelerate that at speed,” he said of the cybersecurity division within G-6. “Others may take a little bit longer inside the tactical space.”