For the first time, Army leaders combined two exercises to test emerging cyber technology needs in a more real-world tactical environment.Cyber Quest is an annual U.S. Army event held at Fort Gordon in which participants assess new technologies against documented Cyberspace, Electronic Warfare (EW), and Signal operational requirements. Cyber Quest is sponsor by the Cyber Battle Laboratory (CBL) of the Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE)
Military planners use the event results to analyze current capability development, doctrine writing efforts, and DOTMLPF.
This year, Cyber Quest — an annual demonstration of emerging technology needs at Fort Gordon —was conducted in concert with the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment at Fort Benning. The event is designed to test new concepts and technologies for multidomain battle focused at lower echelons, such as company and below.
Army officials explained that combining the two events more closely aligns to the Army and Department of Defense’s push toward multidomain operations.
“As we move toward multidomain operations … and we look at competition below the level of armed conflict, maneuvering very often will likely send a message as much as it will execute kinetic effects,” Maj. Gen. Neil Hersey, commander of the Army Cyber Center of Excellence, told reporters March 15. “Bringing those two things closer together supports multidomain operations.”
Moreover, the battle labs at Fort Gordon’s Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Benning’s Maneuver Center of Excellence are pursing similar technological endeavors, creating a synergy to mature on similar paths. There was also a mutually beneficial relationship between the two, in which the Maneuver Center could harness the Cyber Center’s more robust technological knowledge, while the Cyber Center stays attuned to what maneuver commanders need to be successful in their battlespace.
The tactical radios and electronic warfare systems will be used by soldiers at the tip of the spear. Officials explained that getting them into the hands of soldiers conducting real-life missions during an exercise against an active opposing force provides a better test bed to put the technology through its paces.
