ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The 110th Information Operations Battalion held its third annual Information Operations and Cyber Operations Symposium at the Annapolis Readiness Center Nov. 17.
Three years in, the question of why information operations matters has faded. This year’s symposium focused on partnerships and innovations that have demonstrated how the Maryland National Guard and its 110th Information Operations Battalion are leading the way for IO and CO.
Lt. Col. Kristine Henry, the commander of the 110th IO Battalion, hoped attendees would gain “a better understanding of how the Maryland National Guard is employing forces to fight in this information environment, including in and through the cyber domain.”
The symposium also succeeded in demonstrating how the 110th IO Battalion has forged local, state, federal and international partnerships in responding to the unique needs of today’s threat environment.
According to Brig. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, Maryland’s assistant adjutant general for the Army, the 110th has built many effective relationships.
The agenda included presentations on the 110th IO Battalion’s continuing IO mission in the Horn of Africa; participation in exercise Pacific Sentry with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Army Pacific; participation in exercise Locked Shields, the international live-fire cyber defense exercise with U.S. European Command and our NATO allies; and the unit’s work with Estonia as part of the Maryland National Guard’s State Partnership Program.
The Maryland Defense Force, 169th Cyber Protection Team and the Maryland Guard’s Joint Staff J2 also provided presentations on integrating IO and cyber with intelligence and protecting critical infrastructure in the cyber domain.
According to Birckhead, Estonia is highly capable in the cyber domain. The State Partnership Program allows the sharing of tools and information that help grow cyber professionals.
“I think about that partnership – what we can learn and what our soldiers and airmen can learn from them. I think that’s a great partnership,” said Birckhead. “They have built some key tools, and so have we … so we can get that synergy going.”
Birckhead also talked about partnerships in Maryland with agencies at Fort Meade and across the active-duty force. She said the 110th IO Battalion’s innovation ensures that it will continue to find opportunities to build new relationships.
“We do the AFRICOM mission, and we’ve done that well for years,” said Birckhead. “As the operation changes there, our role will change. But we will continue to build relationships across the continent.”
Lt. Col. Brad Rhodes, commander of Cyber Protection Team 174 of the Colorado National Guard and deployed at Fort Meade for Task Force Echo, noted that opportunities for 110th IO Battalion Soldiers gave him ideas for his troops back in Colorado.
“If one of my Soldiers is looking for an opportunity to do an IO mission, thanks to this event, I know exactly who I can link them up with,” said Rhodes.
The increase in the number of opportunities to do IO and cyber may be related to the increasing consciousness of the threat.
“Information operations, information warfare, influence operations. Our adversaries are attacking us in and through the information domain on a daily basis, and they don’t care what it is called,” said Henry. But, she added, the 110th is in a unique position to help the Department of Defense and the Army address the threat in this domain.
Henry talked about the evolution of IO and the fact that practitioners do not always agree how to define it. She provided a way to think about IO by describing four distinct buckets: people, personas, technology and narratives or messaging.
“In the late 90s, when I first started to work in IO, when we said ‘attack the network’ we meant disrupting actual adversary networks of people and organizations.” These days, she said, attacking the network could mean targeting enemy Twitter handles, Reddit personas or Facebook profiles.
In contrast, signal professionals may think of IO in terms of disrupting actual routers, phones or frequencies. The reality is, according to Henry, all of these things are part of IO. “It’s our job to synchronize and deconflict these different capabilities, not only with each other but with our kinetic capabilities as well.”
Getting on the same page about IO is not the only challenge we face. Rhodes also mentioned the difficulties of educating “our more kinetically focused colleagues.”
“When I grew up in the Army, we had three kinds of people: combat arms, combat support and combat service support. Now we have information dominance or information warfare. … We’ve created hard power versus soft power,” said Rhodes. “But if we use the domain of information to create an outcome without shots being fired, that’s winning.”
At least for soldiers of the 110th IO Battalion, there are resources in negotiating challenges like defining IO, developing our skills, preparing for deployments, and, ultimately, fostering our relationships. And one of those resources is the 1st Information Operations Command.
Matthew Hamby, who attended the symposium, is a senior IO planner and East Africa specialist from the 1st IO Command. He said briefers’ comments can help IO practitioners succeed in the field.
“I think you really hit on some very valid points. Particularly, the importance of the Integrated Country Strategy, trying to get across the interagency spectrum and the need to develop IO efforts that encompass the entire field,” said Hamby.
Hamby said that for him, the 110th IO team that supports the mission to the Horn of Africa is priority No. 1. He hopes the 1st IO Command can continue supporting the team and help them evolve their training plan to counter emerging threats.
Ultimately, attention is turning to the warfighter in the information environment, and the 110th IO Battalion seems to be at its leading edge. “For 18 years we’ve been doing a counterinsurgency mission, we’ve been looking at cyber and IO on the side … but now it is to the forefront. How do we achieve readiness? How do you become a force multiplier? By continuing to do what you do,” said Birckhead.
That’s why, whether disrupting actual enemy networks or targeting adversary social media personas, soldiers of the 110th Information Operations Battalion will continue their mission to Attack the Network!
For its federal mission, the 110th IO Battalion is organized under the 56th Theater Information Operations Group of the Washington National Guard. For state missions, the 110th falls under the 58th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade, Maryland National Guard.