Army getting ready to release unified network plan 2.0
The Army is gearing up to release the second iteration of its unified network plan that will focus on multi-domain operations and moving the service to a more data-centric posture.
Version 2.0 is in front of the vice chief of staff, who is slated to sign off on it and clear the way for its public release “soon,” Lt. Gen. Jeth Rey, deputy chief of staff, G6, said at AFCEA’s Northern Virginia Chapter Army IT Day conference Jan. 17.
The unified network plan was initially unveiled in 2021 and articulated a bold vision of breaking down the barriers between the enterprise and tactical networks for a singular, global network.
The “team did a very good job on continuing what I call the momentum that [Lt.] Gen. [John] Morrison left in place. We’re just going to continue that momentum going forward when it comes to AUN 2.0,” Rey, who just took over as the G6 earlier this month, said Friday, referring to the Army Unified Network plan.
He previously said version 1.0 charted the path of where the Army was going with the unified network and now 2.0 aims to posture the Army for 2030.
“It’s going to enable multi-domain operations. That’s going to be the key basis of what it’s all about. Two, is [it’s] going to chart this roadmap of where we’re going for the unified networking by 2027 but then it’s also going to talk about the critical enablers that’s required for that multi-domain operation by Army 2030,” Rey said in December at the Army’s technical exchange meeting in Savannah right before he assumed the role of the G6. “AUN 2.0 is going to be new guidance on how the warfighter actually approaches and accelerates and operationalize the unified network across the board and the Army campaign plan.”
He stressed then that the message is still the same: the service needs to converge all its disparate networks underpinned by zero trust to ensure that when individuals or forces leave an installation, they can seamlessly plug into their new installation.
On Friday, Rey explained that as the Army is looking to advance zero trust principles — a paradigm that assumes networks are already compromised and validates users, devices and data continuously — the current tools haven’t gotten the service to where it needs to be. There’s still work to be done on getting a single identity across all echelons.
The updated plan will also work to further the notion of a data-centric Army. Getting to a more data-centric approach was a key refrain while Rey was the head of what was then the network cross functional team for Army Futures Command, which is now the command-and-control cross functional team.
“It is going to be linking us more data centric. It’s going to push us to that limit. The architecture and vision of it, the Army must continue to evolve the way it communicates,” Rey said in December. “The network is for data, and data is for warfighting. I put that hold out there, because talking to the warfighters, they need the data in order to execute on target.”
Zero trust will be critical to help deliver upon this goal.
“Can I have my identity across the entire unified network, can you provide my credentials across that unified network, can you give me access to the data that is required, and then at the same time, can you manage me as I move across the network?” Rey said, spelling out the key attributes of zero trust: ICAM, or identity, credential and access management.
