Changes Afoot

Many wheels were set in motion over the past weeks, as a number of key leaders in military cyber and defense IT were set to begin transitions to new posts, while at the same time the Air Force began a reorganization with major implications for the future direction of the service's cyber policies and actions.

Later this summer, as part of the Air Force Material Command's restructuring and the establishment of what it's calling the Life Cycle Management Center (LCMC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the well-known Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Fla., will go away, while two other sister organizations will receive new marching orders.

By the time you read this, Hanscom's Battle Management and Theater Command and Control program executive offices will become PEO Battle Management, with responsibility for missions such as theater command, control and communications (C3), strategic surveillance and intelligence processing, exploitation and dissemination.

And going forward, the Command, Control and Communications Information and Networks (C3I&N) Directorate will now be PEO C3I&N, with responsibility for integrating cyber capabilities across all Air Force programs, according to a June 18 letter from Air Force Secretary Michael Donley to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) that I found while researching this month's interview with the PEO's new program executive officer, Maj. Gen. Craig Olson (who at press time was still PEO of Air Force Business and Enterprise Systems, and also director of the Enterprise Information Systems Directorate).

Under this reorganization of cyber and defense IT assets, the PEO for C3I&N (Olson, at this time) will also have a seat at Donley's new CIO Governance Board, which will direct future Air Force cyber and IT investments.

Also being transitioned as you read this is MG Jennifer Napper, commanding general of Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), who will be the new director of plans and policy (J-5) for U.S. Cyber Command. In an Outbrief interview, the general discusses the major challenges facing military networks.

And lastly you could say that this month's Special Report is also about transitions, specifically the Army's transition from the defunct Future Combat Systems program to today's Brigade Combat Teams about to be equipped with Capability Set 13 networking systems that saw first light under FCS.