Charles Lyons-Burt
The U.S. Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 lays out a vision for the future of the service branch to prepare for the threats of tomorrow. Its target areas include achieving a joint warfighting structure (in line with the Department of Defense’s Joint All Domain Command and Control initiative), optimizing reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance operations and advancing base technology.
Also paramount to this roadmap is the development of an information-driven approach to military tactics.
“If I could sum it up in one sentence what [Force Design 2030] is all about for me and what I owe the commandant and our beloved Corps and our incredible Marines, it’s the fusion and correlation of data to drive outcomes,” said Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy, deputy commandant of information for USMC.
Curious about how the Marines and other DOD components are adopting information- and data-based strategies into their procedures? Want to gain more insights from Lt. Gen. Glavy? Join us for ExecutiveBiz’s Information Warfare Forum on March 15. The virtual event will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and you can register here. Glavy will be delivering the keynote address.
To move closer to an information warfare-ready zone, Glavy says the USMC has been working tirelessly to reimagine and reshape its network.
“It is a hybrid-cloud-based network and a large chunk of the Marine Corps data is in the cloud. Now we’re able to use that data. We have to get better as we format and organize our data in the right places to generate desired outcomes,” the deputy commandant stated.
The Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability — a $9 billion cloud services contract offered to Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services and Oracle in December that gives the DOD access to the companies’ cloud programs — is viewed as a helpful resource that will aid in mitigating the potentially hefty costs of cloud storage and computation. Glavy shared that the financial obligations of cloud can be barriers to making desired progress and modernization.
He went on to highlight the rapid cycles of technological change that define the information warfighting space.
“Change is going to be the key to success across the joint force…And our readiness today is going to be different than our readiness this time next year. I think we are going to see our joint force, the Marine Corps included, in this continuous state of change.”
To stay afoot in such an ever-shifting landscape, the USMC has made maneuvers such as establishing the Marine Corps Information Command in December 2022. The MCIC is overseen by Maj. Gen. Ryan Heritage, the commander of both Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace and Marine Corps Forces Space Command and creates a direct line of communication between the latter organizations and officials at U.S. Cyber Command the National Security Agency.
Additionally, Glavy is in the process of finalizing the Marine Corps Warfighting Publication-8 Information, scheduled to be released in June 2023. This document follows the Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-8, released in 2022, which outlined the intent and mechanics of the branch’s information warfare strategy. But the new document is being framed as a “living, breathing” guide to the specific processes the Marines plan to undertake to maintain agility and capability in the information warfare era.
To hear more from Glavy about the USMC’s pursuit of information warfare readiness, register now for ExecutiveBiz’s March 15 Information Warfare Forum.
After Glavy’s keynote speech, the two-hour event will pivot to a panel discussion: “Modernizing Information Warfare in the Commercial Age to Address DOD Needs at the Tactical Edge.” This conversation will be between Director of the Joint Staff’s Office of Irregular Warfare and Competition Richard Tilley and the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Welmon Pippin and Peter Reddy.
