This is good:
The Army has created its first unit to combine long-range targeting, hacking, jamming, and space under one command, a vital component of Multi Domain Operations. The battalion-strength Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare, & Space (I2CEWS) detachment was created at Fort Lewis, Washington to counter China, while a second will follow in Europe for Russia.
This is really good:
So what does putting all these pieces together actually do?
First, remember the new unit will be part of the experimental Multi-Domain Task Force. That task force’s core is the 17th Field Artillery Brigade, also out of Fort Lewis, and a second Multi-Domain Task Force will be built around the 41st Field Artillery in Germany. The long arm of such brigades is HIMARS: basically, big trucks carrying launchers for a wide variety of rockets and missiles.
It is the long-range targeting by HIMARS (or perhaps later with a rail gun?)--that I like, as I've droned on a bit about over the years:
While I think we need to be proficient in cyber-warfare, never forget that physical smart bombs will kill the brightest hackers with even the coolest sounding handles.
Cyber war may take place in another domain, but the cyber war hackers live in the physical domain. As I've droned on about.
In wartime, it is pointless to rely only on counter-hacking when we can counter-attack with actual blow uppy things.
UPDATE: How the Russians do this:
On July 11, 2014, battalions from Ukraine’s 24th and 72nd Mechanized Brigades assembled outside of the town of Zelenopillya, located about 5 miles from the Russian border. Having achieved success against the Russian-led separatist forces in the breakaway oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk (the Donbass) over the previous two months, they were assembling before what was planned to be a final push to the border to cut off the supply lines of the paramilitary forces from their Russian sponsors.
What started as a fairly normal day soon took an unexpected turn. It started with the buzzing of Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) overhead and cyberattacks against Ukrainian command, control and communications systems. The Russians then launched an attack consisting of short-range BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system rockets from across the border. The attack lasted only two or three minutes, but it was immensely destructive to the Ukrainian forces. The attack destroyed most of the armored vehicles, killed at least 30 soldiers and wounded hundreds more. The attack left the Ukrainian forces decimated and demoralized, and represented the high-water mark for the Ukrainian offensive.
We need to be able to do this to the other guy; and thwart their ability to do it to us.
Seriously, this should scare the Hell out of anyone that has to fight under that threat.
