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NELLIS Air Force Base, Nev. (AFNS) -- The internet is a
battleground, and information is the prize. News reports of a
shopping retailer losing control of customers' digital data and an
internet browser being compromised are some of the recent evidence
of the constant cyber-threat present in the World Wide Web.
The digital war over information is one Air Force cyber specialists
fight on a daily basis. To give these Airmen an upper-hand against
their online adversaries, the 24th Air Force takes part in several
training exercises, to include Red Flag.
Red Flag is large
scale combat training exercise held multiple times per year and
hosted at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, that gives air, space and
now cyberspace service members from the U.S. and allied nations the
ability to come together to train as a team. Air, Space and Cyber
domains are integrated between tactical and operational level
participants during Red Flag at the Combined Air Operations Center –
Nellis (CAOC-N)/505th Test Squadron. Through the exercise, each
organization learns to work together to form a stronger total force,
while also being shown how their individual talents fit into the
bigger picture.
The Red Flag 14-1 cyber protection team works on defense procedures inside the Combined Air and Space Operations Center-Nellis during the exercise Feb. 5, 2014, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The CPT's primary goal is to find and thwart potential space, cyberspace and missile threats against U.S. and allied forces. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Brett Clashman) |
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Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael Lyons, Joint Tactical
Communications Office communications operator from Fort Sam Houston,
Texas, looks through information on a workstation inside the
Combined Air and Space Operations Center-Nellis during Red Flag
14-1, Feb. 5, 2014, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. (U.S. Air Force
photo by Senior Airman Brett Clashman) |
Cyber first played a part in the Red Flag exercise
series in 2007, said Daryl Crissman, the 318th Cyber
Operations Group, Detachment 2 chief of weapons and tactics.
At first their initial involvement was limited and only made
up a small portion of the simulated mission. Over the past
two to three years, however, Cyber has made measurable gains
in becoming a fully integrated component of the exercise.
“Our mission is to train the next generation of cyber
warriors and we look at what we call the full spectrum ...
defensive and offensive operations,” said Michael Homsy, the 24th Air
Force exercise planner and cyber range coordinator. “We have
several teams that are being developed ... teams that are
designed to go after the adversary and their infrastructure
and degrade their ability to launch their capabilities
against us, as well as defend critical infrastructure as it
pertains to our country.”
Though the 24th AF
participates in other annual exercises, such as Black Demon
and Cyber Flag, Homsy said Red Flag is considered the
capstone event. Due to the scope of the exercise, they are
able to participate with a wider range of cyber applications
to support other Air Force components, such as air and
space.
“Red Flag has always been primarily focused on
the flying community,” Homsy said. “It is designed to give
the new pilots their first operational missions. Cyber has
only really come into its own in the last few years. We had
to show that we could accomplish our training objectives
without impacting the flying training objectives. We had to
show that we can add value to the overall exercise by being
a part of the exercise, and we were able to do just that.”
In February 2012, cyber Airmen were given a chance to
actively play their part in the exercise through the help of
a new training network. With the new setup, they were able
to give a tangible example of their capabilities while
defending the combined air operations center at Nellis AFB.
“In Red Flag 11-3, we brought the Joint IO Range,”
Crissman said. “It is a closed network that we're allowed to
play on and bring ... our tools and our weapon systems.”
The Joint IO Range is a cyber-range that is used during
the exercise as a training ground for cyber assets, Crissman
said. It is modeled after the Air Force's network, but is
completely separated; therefore it doesn't affect any other
active networks. It gives Airmen the distinct advantage of
trying new systems, defenses and attacks prior to deploying
them in a real-world environment.
“One of the things
that we've been working on in the past year is presenting a
contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment
for the training audience and presenting them with a problem
and making them solve it,” said Julie Fluhr, a 505th Test
Squadron non-kinetic operations subject matter expert. “One
of the advantages to Red Flag is, because it is a closed
system, we can allow the aggressors to do things that they
can't do on real-world networks.”
During the three
week exercise, Airmen are given a mission tasking based on a
given scenario. Each week of Red Flag increases in
difficulty. As the participants become more practiced and
familiar with the scenario, the bar is raised. As the
exercise further develops, Airmen are able to adjust their
tactics and procedures to reach their objectives.
“They break down what happened during the course of the
(debrief) period to see what actions were taken -- what
defensive actions; were they successful or not?” Homsy said.
“And that's when the real learning begins, because you're
now deconstructing the actual actions.
“Basically,
they are looking at what went wrong and then do a recon
analysis on it,” he said. “What went wrong? Why did it go
wrong? What can we do to fix it next time? Then they go back
and integrate that into the next stage of planning, so they
don't make the same mistake again.”
Participants in
Red Flag are also encouraged to learn about different
aspects of the total force in order to work together more
effectively and cohesively.
“Red Flag is integral in
showing operators how we affect the air picture and how we
can actually integrate with the flying community,” said
Tech. Sgt. Scott Karter, the 92nd Information Operations
Squadron NCO in charge of operations training. “It allows us
to see how we have an impact on the overall mission.”
Karter attended Red Flag in February and through that
experience developed a new understanding by working in
conjunction with Airmen in other career fields.
“Dealing with the (air and space) community for the first
time in my career was interesting,” he said. “They seemed to
not understand what we did, just as much as we didn't
understand what they did. Our integration together allowed
us to see how we helped each other. They became able to rely
on us to defend their assets, while we were able to help
fulfil their missions.”
Airmen with the 24th AF
weren't the only one's seeing a new big picture as other Air
Force communities were introduced to the many facets of
cyberspace warfare.
“We grow up in our own worlds,”
said Lt. Col. Christopher Jarvis, the 505th Test Squadron
chief of combat operations. “I'm an electronic warfare
officer by trade, so I grew up understanding electronic
attacks, jamming other assets, (and information),
surveillance and reconnaissance ... Through Red Flag, years
ago, I learned the tactical executing side, the bomb
dropping, the missile shooting. It's only been recently that
I've even gotten the opportunity to learn how space and
cyber works.”
Bringing together the diverse combat
components help to dissuade the narrow thinking that there
is only one way to affect a target. For example, Jarvis
said, if the objective of the mission was to take out an
opponent's headquarters building, there are multiple ways to
get that done.
“We can drop a bomb; we can blow it
up, or we can take cyber capabilities and use a sort of
non-kinetic denial capability,” he said. “If I can shut down
the building's ability to communicate then I've achieved
that same effect at the cost of probably less money and then
obviously less lives.”
If the Internet is destined to
become the new battlefield of the 21st Century, it will be
the Air Force, and more specifically the 24th Air Force, who
will have the advantage with exercises such as Red Flag. In
future warfare, it will be cyber Airmen challenging online
adversaries, in addition to the traditional mission of
bombers, fighters and RPAs, who will fight and win on the
digital battlefield.
By U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jette Carr
Air Force News Service
Copyright 2014
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