FIA 2012: Operational cyber and information systems the focus of Air Power Zone discussions
This morning Air Vice Marshal Phil Osborn (below), air officer commanding, spoke to attendees in the Air Power Zone for 20 minutes on operational cyber and the requirement that the military has to protect its own systems and its architectures from cyber threat. He also briefly talked about the developing relationship with joint forces command, the fourth new command, and the responsibility they will have as the joint enablers for all forces, and the responsbility it has in terms of managing the cyber threat and insuring all IT systems across defence are as secure as they can possibly be.
Osborn is a key player in understanding how to manage and protect every piece of data and software that the military currently use from the threat of cyber attack from anywhere across the globe.
This afternoon's session in the ADS Air Power Zone was lead by Air Vice Marshal Mark Green (below), the director in charge of information superiority. During the session he discussed ISR strategy for the future to allow the military to generate, handle and move high volume data, turn it from data into knowledge such as the forces wherever they are in the battlespace, whether it be land, maritime, or air, can maximise the leverage of the data that they generate to document knowledge.
Also discussed was the use of mini-UAVs at a tactical level, up to the operational level, looking at UAVs that are currently in operation, such as Watchkeeper. He then went on to discuss next generation UAVs and unmanned systems that are going to assist on the land, maritime and air domain, to help generate a picture of knowledge referred to as ISTAR, so that the people on the ground are making the right decision at the right time.
