Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery & Annie Fixler
A direct military engagement between the United States and a near-peer adversary would require the swift mobilization and deployment of a sizable U.S. military force. Moving troops and equipment efficiently over land, sea, and air is essential to America’s ability to project power, support partners and allies, and sustain forces to fight and win wars. Alongside the U.S. military’s own assets, commercially owned and operated critical infrastructure enables this military mobility. While U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) conducts logistical operations to facilitate the mobility of U.S. forces, civilian-owned rail networks, commercial ports, and airport authorities will handle transportation of the majority of servicemembers and materiel during a significant, rapid mobilization. U.S. adversaries know that compromising this critical infrastructure through cyber and physical attacks would impede America’s ability to deploy, supply, and sustain large forces. As the U.S. intelligence community’s 2024 annual threat assessment warned, China would “consider aggressive cyber operations against U.S. critical infrastructure and military assets” in the event of an imminent conflict with the United States. Beijing would seek to use these operations not only as a deterrent against further U.S. military action but also specifically to “interfere with the deployment of U.S. forces.”
Over the past year, the intelligence community has revealed how deeply Chinese hackers known as Volt Typhoon penetrated U.S. transportation, energy, and water systems. Volt Typhoon demonstrated China’s capability to gain and maintain persistent access to closed systems and preposition malicious payloads to cause disruption and destruction. Meanwhile, other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) malicious cyber operations, including Flax Typhoon, hijacked cameras and routers, and Salt Typhoon burrowed deep into U.S. telecommunications networks. In addition to enabling potential disruption, compromising critical infrastructure allows Beijing to amass information about the movement of goods, surreptitiously watching as the United States moves its military equipment across the country. Given these threats, the U.S. military has a vested interest in the security of the nation’s critical transportation infrastructure.
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