The Army will hold an industry day before the end of the year to find new “smart” capabilities for bases in the face of growing drone and information warfare threats aimed at installations, officials told reporters Monday.
Army TRADOC’s latest Mad Scientist conference held last month at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta focused on future threats to Army installations, with officials now planning to develop formal proposals for critical sensor capabilities and microgrid projects aimed at non-traditional defense partners.
“There are 156 Army installations that serve as initial platforms for Army readiness and maneuverability. Due to the increasing connectivity through the Internet of Things, Army installations cannot be considered the sanctuaries they once were. A myriad of emerging threat vectors from social media, cyber-attacks, information operations, and even new generation warfare change the dynamic of how these installations can and should be viewed,” TRADOC officials wrote in a statement.
Mad Scientist is TRADOC’s program to bring in academia and the private sector to discuss future challenges to the operational environment.
“The Mad Scientist program is an effort to explore the possibilities of the future and look at what the military and security implications of those possibilities are,” Lee Grubbs, the program’s director, told reporters. “We bring in people that the Army isn’t already talking to and we get them in one space. The idea is to first find out what’s being developed outside the Army and then work to design proposals for future Army requirements.”
Grubbs organized the June conference to discuss solutions needed to secure Army bases from cyber attacks and improve training officials ability to collect data and more efficiently deliver new services to soldiers.
Participants at the Mad Scientist specifically focused on developing ways to enhance the Army’s synthetic training environment simulation program.
“We need a next-generation WiFi capability and the ability to collection information from a whole range of sensors, so that when soldiers go into synthetic training environments we can gather something meaningful from the data, It’s about the ability to collect, use and move critical data securely,” Richard Kidd, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for strategic integration, installations, energy and environment, told reporters.
Kidd called Mad Scientist an important effort for the Army’s push towards smart bases that support virtualized training, data-driven services with proliferating sensors and improved security from growing homeland threats.
“The Army has indicated for the first time that our installations are now a part of the battlespace. Right now, our adversaries are trying to reach out and affect us at home. The threats are no longer relegated just to the theater or off in other parts of the word. There are efforts now to go after our installations and soldiers through information warfare,” Kidd said.
The attack vector for adversaries, specifically Russia, is widening with vulnerable sensors on bases that can be hacked and the potential for autonomous vehicles to breach installations undetected, according to Kidd.
Kidd emphasized the need for microgrid technology to avoid a situation similar to the Ukraine, where Russian electronic warfare attacks were able to take out parts of the country’s power grid.
Army officials have discussed possibly adding sensors to all buildings in an Army installation which would help the base function as its own power grid, according to Kidd.
Potential industry partners would have an opportunity to integrate new grid technology, such as a 30-megawatt solar array developed at Fort Benning in Georgia.
Participants at Mad Scientist also discussed capabilities needed to deter unconventional warfare, including the potential for drones potentially being used to deliver munitions threats.
“Our installations here in the United States are vulnerable to those kinds of activities. We’ve detected drones at a number of our installations,” Kidd said.
Kidd said an industry day to formalize proposals for “smart” base technology would take place before the end of the year.
“In the broader sense, we’re trying to make sure the Army and its key partners understand that we need a deliverable process for modernizing our installations that is similar to upgrading our weapons systems or other platforms,” Kidd said.