By MACKENZIE EAGLEN
President Trump has pledged to rebuild both America’s military and its infrastructure—priorities that are more intertwined than they might appear. In the 21st century, “infrastructure” means more than roads, bridges and airports. Just as American life increasingly relies upon the virtual infrastructure of internet and satellite connectivity, so does the Pentagon.
The Global Positioning System is a prime example. The same GPS signal that helps you navigate around a traffic jam or lets your kids play Pokémon Go also guides the Air Force’s smart weapons and enables American commanders to direct ground forces in battle. But much of this widely used technological infrastructure is out of date, unreliable or easily tampered with.
The Defense Department still uses 8-inch floppy disks and computers from the 1970s to coordinate nuclear forces, according to a report last year from the Government Accountability Office. Many of the Pentagon’s communications systems are so vulnerable to sabotage that the Army and Navy regularly practice fighting without them. Satellites can be shot down by missiles or have their sensors dazzled by lasers. Their ground links can be jammed or hacked.
Dale Hayden, a senior researcher at the Air Force’s Air University, told an audience of aerospace experts earlier this month that proliferation of antisatellite technology has put America’s communications networks at risk. “In a conflict, it will be impossible to defend all of the space assets in totality,” he said. “Losses must be expected.”
It has never been easier for America’s adversaries—principally Russia and China, but also independent nonstate actors—to degrade the U.S. military’s ability to fight and communicate. Senior military officials have expressed grave doubts about the security of the Pentagon’s information systems and America’s ability to protect the wider commercial virtual infrastructure.
The U.S. Navy, under its mission to keep the global commons free, prevents tampering with undersea cables. But accidents—and worse—do happen. Last year a ship’s anchor severed a cable in the English Channel, slowing internet service on the island of Jersey. In 2013 the Egyptian coast guard arrested three scuba divers trying to cut a cable carrying a third of the internet traffic between Europe and Egypt. “When communications networks go down, the financial services sector does not grind to a halt, rather it snaps to a halt,” warned a senior staffer to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in 2009. Trillions of dollars in daily trading depends on GPS, which is kept free by the Air Force.
There are now an estimated 17.6 billion devices around the world connected to the internet, including more than six billion smartphones. The tech industry expects those numbers to double by 2020. That growth is dependent, however, on secure and reliable access to intercontinental undersea fiber-optic cables, which carry 99% of global internet traffic, and a range of satellite services.
The U.S. military is working on ways of making them more resilient. For instance, the Tactical Undersea Network Architectures program promises rapidly deployable, lightweight fiber-optic backup cables, and autonomous undersea vehicles could soon be used to monitor and repair cables. In space, the military is leading the way with advanced repair satellites as well as new and experimental GPS satellites, which will enhance both military and civilian signals.
Still, America is falling behind in its mission to keep the world’s virtual infrastructure secure. In part that’s because the Pentagon’s own IT is in such dismal shape. Contractors buy computer parts on eBay for missile-defense systems, and the Navy pays Microsoft to support obsolete operating systems. Ancient hardware and software not only leave weapons vulnerable, they also hamper the efficiency of back-end business systems.
Earlier this month, I spent 10 hours trying to reset a password on an Army computer system so I could file financial disclosure forms. More than two million people work for the Defense Department. If only a fraction of them has had a similar experience, think of the time that the Pentagon’s antiquated IT wastes. In the end, that increases the vulnerability of the front-line American soldier.
Investments in virtual infrastructure—to protect network connectivity and upgrade military information systems—could have economywide benefits. Recall that President Reagan’s defense buildup in the 1980s not only restored America’s military superiority, but helped juice recovery from the 1981 recession. It also pushed the American electronics, aerospace and communications industries toward international dominance.
A reprise of targeted investment in advanced IT—hardware and software—is overdue. Getting it right could mean more secure networks, more high-paying jobs and more technological breakthroughs in areas that will rule the commercial and military future.
Ms. Eaglen is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former House, Senate and Pentagon staffer.
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