GENERAL DEMPSEY SPEAKS AT BROOKINGS INSTITUTION ON SERIOUSNESS OF CYBER THREAT

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
DOD Must Stay Ahead of Cyber Threat, Dempsey Says

By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2013 - In its mission to defend the nation, the Defense Department must stay ahead of the ongoing technological revolution and its attendant rise in "anywhere, any time" cyber threats, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today.


"As the defense community begins to focus inward on the implications of changing resources and this thing called sequestration, I think it's important that we force ourselves to continue to look outward, at the changing world around us," Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told attendees at a Brookings Institution forum.

Computers continue to be integrated into in everyone's daily lives, the chairman said. "By this time next year, I'm quite certain that my toaster will be connected to the Internet and probably tweeting," he joked. "But the spread of digital technology has not been without consequence. It has also introduced new dangers to our security and our safety."

Dempsey told the audience that in his two years as chairman, he has focused on what this revolution means for the military. He has spoken with information technology experts, major tech company security teams, and spent time with an Internet service provider. He even met with a venture capitalist, he said.

"One thing is clear: cyber has escalated from an issue of moderate concern to one of the most serious threats to our national security," Dempsey said. Now, the entire country could be disrupted by the click of mouse, he added.

To address these threats, the military must take on new missions, the chairman said.

"Cyber incidents have steadily escalated over the past year," Dempsey said. Banks and oil companies have been targeted by sophisticated attacks, he said, and more than 20 nations now have military cyber units.

"This is the new normal in cyberspace," Dempsey said. "Disruptive and destructive cyberattacks are becoming a part of conflict between states, within states, and among nonstate actors. The borderless nature of cyberspace means anyone, anywhere in the world, can use cyber to affect someone else."

It isn't enough to just strengthen cyber defenses on military systems, the chairman said. Intrusion attempts on critical civilian infrastructure systems have increased 17-fold over the last two years, he said. "The gap between cyber defenses deployed across critical infrastructure and offensive tools we now know exist presents a significant vulnerability for our nation," Dempsey said.

In response to the threat, the Defense Department is growing its capacity to protect its own networks, and it's adding a new mission: defending the nation, when asked, from attacks of significant consequence -- those that threaten life, limb, and the country's core critical infrastructure, the chairman said.

Over the next four years, 4,000 cyber operators will join the ranks of U.S. Cyber Command, and $23 billion will be invested in cybersecurity, he said.

Three types of teams will operate around the clock at Cyber Command, Dempsey said. National mission teams will counter adversary cyberattacks on the United States. "A second and larger set of teams will support our combatant commanders as they execute military our missions around the globe," Dempsey said. "The largest set of teams will operate and defend the networks that support our military operations worldwide."

The most immediate priority is securing the "dot-mil" domain, the chairman said. "But in the event of a domestic cyber crisis," he added, "our cyber forces will work in support of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, who lead our nation's response in the dot-gov and dot-com domains."

To ensure this force is able to operate quickly, the Defense Department now has a "playbook" for cyber, Dempsey said, noting that a presidential directive codifies how each part of the government will respond in the event of a serious cyberattack. Under this directive, the department has developed emergency procedures to guide its response to imminent, significant cyber threats, the chairman said.

The Defense Department is updating its cyber rules of engagement for the first time in seven years, he added, and also is improving mission command for cyber forces.

While cyber may be the nation's greatest vulnerability, Dempsey said, it also presents the military with a tremendous asymmetric advantage. "The military that maintains the most agile and resilient networks will be the most effective in future war," he told the audience. "This is the kind of force we are building for the future."

Each branch of the military is doing its part, the chairman said, by investing in equipment and personnel that will ensure the joint force can operate in cyberspace as capably as it can on land, sea, air, and space. The next step is the planned Joint Information Environment, he said -- a single, easy to secure, joint network delivering data to the department's personnel wherever and whenever they need it.

"As part of this new Joint Information Environment, we're building a secure 4G wireless network that will get iPads, iPhones and Android devices online in 2014," the chairman said. "With tools like this, the smartphone generation joining our military will help us pioneer a new era of mobile command and control."

Although the Defense Department has made significant progress in embracing cyber, the nation's effort to protect critical civilian infrastructure is lagging -- a worrisome vulnerability, the chairman said. Sharing information about cyber threats is one of the most important ways to strengthen cybersecurity across the private sector, he added, but threat information primarily is shared in only one direction: from the government to critical infrastructure operators.

"That has to change," Dempsey said. "We can't stop an attack unless we can see it."

The country is debating the proper purpose and limits of intelligence collection for national security, the general said, but these are two entirely different issues, and it is a mistake to combine them.

"One is collecting the intelligence necessary to locate foreign terrorists and their potential domestic co-conspirators," he explained. "The other is sharing information about malware to protect our critical infrastructure from a different kind of attack."

Ultimately, he said, "it will take legislation to significantly strengthen our ability to withstand cyberattacks while safeguarding civil liberties."

Information sharing is just one path to safer network operations, the chairman said. Others include improved cybersecurity standards and the establishment of internationally recognized rules for responsible behavior in cyberspace.

"The rise of cyber is the most striking development in the post-9/11 national security landscape," Dempsey told the audience. "We are doing everything we can inside the military to be ready to operate in cyberspace. I call on our elected officials and the private sector to match the urgency. Together, we must place this nation on surer footing against the cyber threat."

CHAIRMAN OF JOINT CHIEFS SAYS CYBERATTACKS COULD GET CONVENTIONAL MILITARY RESPONSE

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Dempsey: Cyberattacks Could Prompt Conventional Response

By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 27, 2013 - Cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure or networks could be met with a conventional military response, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.


"There is an assumption out there ... that a cyberattack that had destructive effects would be met by a cyber response that had destructive effects," Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said to an audience at a Brookings Institution forum. "That's not necessarily the case. I think that what [President Barack Obama] would insist upon, actually, is that he had the options and the freedom of movement to decide what kind of response we would employ."

The impact of a cyberattack is a key question for elected officials to answer when considering the level of response, Dempsey said. "When does cyber theft become a hostile act?" the chairman asked. "Or when does cyber theft, added to distributed denial of services, become a hostile act? Or is a hostile act simply defined as something that literally is destructive in nature?"

Cyber has many features in common with other domains, and shouldn't be thought of as a wholly exceptional realm, Dempsey said. Although it can sometimes feel abstract, he explained, cyber is a physical domain in the sense that it is operated by men and women over routers and servers, and cyberattacks can result in real, physical damage.

"I think that to the extent that we can always think about it in the way that we've always organized our thinking about the other domains, it might illuminate the challenge a little better," the chairman said. "I do think that there are capabilities out there that are so destructive in nature and potential that it would be very difficult not to see them as acts of war."

But, he noted, "the decision to declare something a hostile act -- an act of war -- is certainly one that resides in the responsibility of our elected leaders."

DOD WORKING ON STRATEGIC CHOICES AND MANAGEMENT REVIEW

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Work Continues on DOD Strategy, Management Review
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 30, 2013 - Work continues on the Defense Department's strategic choices and management review, with results not expected to be released for a couple of weeks, a Pentagon spokesman said today.

The review, chaired by Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will inform leaders as they make budget choices for the future, Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters.

It was formed to provide leaders with strategic options facing the department given current fiscal realities, the colonel said, and it takes a broad look at both the current situation and the budget out-years.

"They continue to analyze and work through the potential decisions to be made," he added.

Officials involved with the review are looking at various fiscal situations and planning responses to each, Warren said.

CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS SEES SEXUAL ASSAULT AS A MILITARY CRISIS

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Dempsey: Sexual Assault Constitutes Crisis in Military
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT, May 15, 2013 - Sexual assault in the force constitutes a crisis in the military, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.

"We're losing the confidence of the women who serve that we can solve this problem," Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told reporters as he returned from NATO meetings in Brussels. "That's a crisis."

Dempsey has actively been researching this issue since he became the Army's Training and Doctrine Command chief in 2008. He continued the research as Army chief of staff, and now as chairman.

"I tasked those around me to help me understand what a decade-plus of conflict may have done to the force," he said. "Instinctively, I knew it had to have some effect."

The chairman still cannot articulate what 10 years of war has done to the force, but he does think the increase in sexual assaults, the rise in suicides, and the increase in instances of misconduct and indiscipline are in some way related.

"This is not to make excuses," he said. "We should be better than this. In fact, we have to be better than this."

All of the Joint Chiefs share his concern, Dempsey said, which was why the chiefs issued direction to the Joint Force on Sexual Assault Prevention and Response in May 2012.

"That's why we are very open to some of these legislative recommendations on changing the [Uniform Code of Military Justice]," he said. "I just want to make sure I understand the second- and third-order of effects of them."

Dempsey said the Joint Chiefs of Staff will work with all parties to find solutions to this crisis.

"But we also are trying to look at this in the broader context of what we've asked this all-volunteer force to do," he said. We've asked this all-volunteer force to fight a decade-long conflict, and we've asked them to deploy repeatedly. We need to understand the effect on the health of the force."

Meanwhile, the service branches are studying the effects of multiple and prolonged deployments on their military members.

"I would like each service to look at this and then bring back to the Joint Chiefs to see what we can learn among us all," he said.

Dempsey has a letter from the chairman and minority leader of the Senate Armed Service Committee to assess the various legislative proposals geared to prevent sexual assault in the military.

"There are a lot of good ideas out there. There are some I don't think are good ideas, and there are some I really don't understand," he said. "I'm hoping to provide my best advice back to those making the proposals. But I assure you that we are open-minded to see if there are opportunities to do better out there."

FINACIAL WOES WON'T AFFECT DEPLOYED TROOPS DIRECTLY SAYS CHAIRMAN OF JOINT CHIEFS

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Chairman Discusses Department's Financial Woes
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany, Feb. 9, 2013 - The Defense Department's financial problems will affect deployed troops, but not directly, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today.

"If they are in harm's way, they are going to continue to be the best-led, best-trained, best-equipped, best-supported force on the planet," Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told reporters. "But it could affect the base operating funding where their families are living, and that will affect them."

Dempsey is traveling to Afghanistan to attend the International Security Assistance Force change of command ceremony.

Senior DOD officials have been warning about the severe impact that billions of dollars in budget cuts set to take effect March 1st will have on department operations. The department is also operating under a continuing resolution rather than an appropriation. This allows no new starts for projects and makes it difficult to move money from one account to another.

"As we apply these reductions, we're trying to avoid applying them blindly so we can be alert to what we're creating for those young men and women," the chairman said.

DOD is moving to address the fiscal situation. The chairman along with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced Wednesday that the department would slow the growth of military pay increases. In fiscal 2014, service members will receive a 1 percent pay raise. "That action is being taken to help us absorb the $487 billion in the Budget Control Act – it has nothing to do with sequestration," Dempsey said.

A second decision – to postpone deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and cruiser USS Gettysburg – was made "because the continuing resolution under which we are operating has more money in the investment account and less money in operations and maintenance and we don't have transfer authority to move them," he said.

The department is anticipating absorbing sequestration cuts, those set to take effect in March, but these will be mammoth. This will mean a further $470 billion out of DOD over the next 10 years. This fiscal year, which ends September 30, would see $45 billion cut from DOD accounts. "In this fiscal year ... we're going to have to sweep up every bit of money that is not otherwise locked down," he said.

Overall, "I see about a third of that (cut) absorbed by force structure reductions," the general said. "The other two thirds will come out of modernization, compensation and readiness."

CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF TALKS ABOUT U.S. GLOBAL FOOTPRINT

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, , HORIZONTAL REBALANCING GLOBALLY OF U.S. MILITARY

Chairman Looks at Changes to U.S. Global Footprint

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
PERTH, Australia, Nov. 12, 2012 - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is ready to move on to the next step of determining the footprint of U.S. troops based overseas.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said in an interview today that service members can expect changes in the numbers of troops based overseas, with increases in some cases and decreases in others.

The determination is an outgrowth of the new defense strategy adopted earlier this year, the chairman said, and officials have been working to learn what is necessary to implement the strategy.

"That's part of the strategic seminars I've been holding with the combatant commanders and service chiefs," he said. "I also said when we implemented the strategy that we wouldn't get just one at-bat to deliver this strategy. We'll have several to deliver these over the plate."

The rebalancing of the force to the Asia-Pacific region has received most of the attention since the strategy was announced.

"That was a horizontal rebalancing globally," the chairman said. "This year, I want to look at a vertical rebalancing, and what I mean by that ... is how we array the forces we have ... and how many should be forward stationed and how best to reap the benefits of forward stationing which are close, binding, traditional enduring relationships."

This includes cultural awareness that leads to deep relationships and deep contacts, he said.

The chairman said he also will look at where and how to rotate troops in and out of areas, "and where we base troops in the homeland, where we build readiness and connect with America."

As the military compares the horizontal and vertical rebalancing, he said, "I believe I'll have a pretty good understanding of how to best apply the resources we have as we go through the continuing budget discussions."

But budget uncertainty makes all this more difficult, Dempsey said. There still is no fiscal 2013 budget, and the cloud of sequestration hangs over discussion of fiscal 2014's budget. If Congress fails to find an alternative by January, a sequestration mechanism in budget law will trigger about $500 billion in defense spending cuts over the next decade in addition to $487 billion in cuts already scheduled over that period.

Development of a strategy that takes those spending reductions into account proves the Defense Department is adaptable, Dempsey said.

"I've often said that the military is seen as being resistant to change," the general said. "We're really not. If you look at the force we were 10 years ago and the force we are today, I would compare the way we've changed with any other sector of the United States.

"We're not averse to change, but uncertainty is the thing that is troubling, because you don't want to put the force in the position where it has to make major change every year," he continued. "Tell us what you want us to change once and let us get after it, and I think you'll find we'll deliver."

The chairman is here to participate in annual consultations between the United States and Australia.