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thedrifter
04-12-06, 06:50 PM
Expeditionary CIO
Brigadier General George J. Allen

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Director for C4 and Chief Information Officer Marine Corps

Brigadier General George J. Allen is the director for command, control, communications and computers (C4) and chief information officer (CIO) for the Marine Corps. Prior to this assignment, he was the commanding officer, Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Allen’s previous command positions include commanding officer, 8th Communication Battalion, MarForLant; Detachment Bravo Company commander, Marine Wing Communications Squadron-38, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing; communications platoon commander, 31st Marine Amphibious Unit, III MEF; multichannel platoon commander, Communication Company, Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, FMFPac; radio platoon commander, 8th Communication Battalion, FMFLant; wire platoon commander, 8th Communication Battalion, FMFLant.

His previous staff assignments include assistant chief of staff, G-6, First Marine Expeditionary Force during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom; division chief, C4 Directorate, Headquarters Marine Corps; assistant chief of staff, G-6, 2nd Marine Division, Marine Forces Atlantic; G-6 operations officer, 2nd Marine Division, Marine Forces Atlantic; S-6 officer, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, FMFPac; Unified Plans Branch chief, Defense Communications Agency-Pacific; S-3 officer, MWCS-38, 3rd MAW; MAG-50 communications officer, MWCS-38, 3rd MAW; S-4 officer, MWCS-38, 3rd MAW; Marine communications instructor to the Army Field Artillery School, Fort Sill, Okla.; assistant communications-electronics officer, 31st Marine Amphibious Unit, III MEF; communications watch officer, battalion maintenance management officer, 8th Communication Battalion, FMFLant.

Allen earned an M.B.A. from Oklahoma City University and a Master of Science degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University.

Allen was interviewed by MIT Editor Harrison Donnelly.

Q: Where is the Marine Corps today in terms of implementation of the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), and what lessons have the Marines learned from the process of creating this huge network?

A: The Marine Corps has transitioned over 57,000 unclassified seats of an expected total of 86,000 to NMCI.

There are two items to clarify regarding the question about lessons. First, it is important to note that the Marine Corps is in the process of transitioning our network to NMCI—not of creating a new network. Second, as to the size of the network, the projected end-state of our enterprise network after we complete the NMCI transition will be equivalent to the size of our network before we transitioned.

With respect to lessons learned, NMCI has proven to be a forcing function for application-portfolio management. The deployment of any applications in the NMCI environment that are not on the NMCI Gold Disk requires the functional application manager to follow a detailed process and shoulder the cost of testing, certification and distribution.

We are also discovering new opportunities for gained efficiencies in the storage arena, a competency that was greatly decentralized prior to NMCI. The Marine Corps has also found the transition period to be turbulent due to the network having been effectively “fractured.” This should resolve itself at completion of the transition, but deployed networks and other “outs” will continue to provide integration challenges.

Q: What is the Marine Corps Enterprise Network (MCEN), and what role does your office play in it?

A: The MCEN is best described as all those IT assets controlled and governed by the Marine Corps, either at an enterprise level or locally (such as deployed networks). The expansive reach of the MCEN touches and enables the entire gamut of our business and warfighting functions and, as such, involves NMCI, security, personnel, deployable systems, applications, circuitry and so on. C4 is the focal point for the planning, policy and programming advocacy for all these items, so our role is basically to facilitate the health and welfare of all IT-related arenas in support of making Marines and winning battles.

Q: What is the current status of the Marine Corps Enterprise Information Technology Services (MCEITS) program?

A: MCEITS passed Milestone A recently and is forging on with the CDD completion. As the Marine Corps’ flagship enterprise-services program, we are targeting MCEITS as the delivery mechanism for Net-Centric Enterprise Services [NCES] and expansion of USMC-unique services. MCEITS is factoring significantly in our ongoing regionalization planning and will form the central hub around which the Marine Corps restructures its IT assets. As part of the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System process, the MCEITS Engineering Development Model is now functional and currently being tested via the deployment of SharePoint collaboration services.

Q: What progress has the Corps made towards synchronization of information architectures with the rest of DoD? What are the key obstacles to this goal?

A: The Marine Corps is engaged at multiple levels with other services and DoD agencies in identifying mutual information exchanges leading to better information sharing:
For joint warfighting, we have teams involved in the evolution of joint architectures with Marine contributions to key operational threads.
For operational support and business operations, we contribute to the Department of the Navy’s enterprise architecture efforts and are working to conform to the Department of Defense Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA).
From a service strategic perspective, the Marine Corps is working to codify its information-architecture expectations through an enterprise data strategy that aligns our information-sharing priorities, processes and technologies with those of DoD.

This strategy reflects Marine Corps engagements in areas of global force management, blue-force situational awareness and network operations, and it complements the activities from our integrated logistics, manpower management and financial management domains. We are also investing in enterprise infrastructure systems that will contain the features and establish conditions to promote better information sharing. Marine Corps operations in the global war on terrorism [GWOT] have stressed the need to resolve information silos and have resulted in a close working relationship with the Army for strategies leading to improved shared situational awareness.

The scale of defense transformation and its introduction of new ideas and architectures have profound implications on policy, procedures and technology and will require time to institutionalize. For example, the concept of community of interest [COI] needs time to mature before a common understanding of a COI and its role and influence are fully realized in our internal pursuits. Today, the Marine Corps is engaged with several joint COIs—global force management, blue-force tracking and network operations—and the demand grows for our participation in developing other shared vocabularies.

Because transformation is approached simultaneously in all domains and across technologies, we see different groups operating on or near the same space. This is a reflection of the enterprise scope and a natural consequence of a desire to achieve success. Finally, each service or agency is at a different stage in its pursuits. We have our established technology footprints, and we operate with constraints on the resources we can commit.

As such, the Marine Corps cannot operate on a broad frontage. We have to target areas that will provide us the best return. We must also be pragmatic and ensure that our pursuits build on past successes. This will not make all stakeholders happy, so we are working hard to partner with other services and agencies to minimize solutions in isolation. This is the best strategy we can hope to use in mitigating these challenges.

Q: The Marines are unique among the services in terms of size, tactics and other factors. How has this unique character influenced the Marine approach to C4?

A: The expeditionary mindset of Marines requires our combined arms force to successfully operate from the sea, in the desert and in urban and rural environments while effectively conducting combat, peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. This requirement drives our approach, in that we must provide C4 capabilities that are reliable, flexible and scalable to meet the needs of our expeditionary force. In addition, our approach seeks to leverage those technologies and concepts that will enable us to maximize the full benefits of a net-centric environment.

Q: The Marine Corps recently made a major purchase under the Multi-band, Multi-mission Radio Standardization program. Why did you make this investment?

A: This investment was made in order to provide both sustainment and modernization of our legacy radio systems and to meet the increased demands for radio equipment in support of GWOT operations. The ability to have a multi-band capability in one radio provides greater flexibility while reducing the combat load at the small unit level.

Q: What implications does the multi-band, multi-mission purchase have for future Marine participation in the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)?

A: The Marine Corps remains fully committed to the JTRS program. The ability to have a software-programmable radio to deliver high-speed voice, data and video capabilities that JTRS will provide is critical as we migrate to net-centric operations. The multi-band, multi-mission purchase is part of our “bridge” strategy to meet USMC operational requirements until JTRS can be fully fielded.

Q: The Marine Corps also recently ordered additional versions of the Unit Operations Center (UOC) mobile command posts. How have these facilities performed in the field?

A: There have been positive results. Many units deployed in support of OIF have requested UOCs because of the improvements to command and control processes the equipment and facilities provide. Currently, we have been funded for an additional 32 capability sets for GWOT operations.

Q: The Marines have also been leaders in making use of Voice over Internet Protocol. What are the benefits of this technology for your service?

A: Benefits of this technology are twofold. The technology maximizes our limited resources by integrating our networks and our transmission paths for an enhanced digital capability while also enhancing the Marine Corps’ interoperability in a joint arena.

Q: Are you currently working on any other major C4I procurements?

A: Based on lessons learned from OIF, we are currently working on procuring very small aperture satellite terminals [VSAT], which will augment our organic tactical SATCOM assets. These VSAT systems provide over-the-horizon connectivity to smaller Marine air ground task force [MAGTF] units operating in remote forward operating bases. Current efforts also include logistics satellite wideband area network [SWAN] and video SWAN providing connectivity for MAGTF logistics elements and video dissemination respectively.

Q: What computer and communications technologies have been most important for Marines in operations in Iraq?

A: There are a host of communications technologies that have been vital in supporting MAGTF operations. They include blue-force situational awareness devices for enhancing situational awareness at all levels of the force, multi-band radios that provide flexibility for small unit leaders, commercial and tactical satellite systems that allow us to leverage military and commercial satellites, and IP performance-enhancement proxy devices that enhance our efficiency in the use of critical SATCOM resources.

Q: What are some of the other innovative IT-related projects involving the Marines?

A: We are repackaging our current Tactical Data Network equipment suite into a smaller transit modular suite of equipment. This will provide a more flexible package for satisfying our deploying units’ data-networking needs.

Q: How would you rate the current degree of information assurance within the Marine Corps?

A: As with the rest of the Department of Defense, the Marine Corps continues to expand capabilities to protect systems and information placed in our trust. While no organization is perfect, we maintain our Marine Corps tradition of an expectation of excellence and high standards in our information-assurance program and remain confident in our ability to assure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our IT systems and information.

Q: What is your strategy for increasing security?

A: All tools are only as good as the personnel who use them. While we are working to standardize our security settings on our systems and servers and expand the use of encryption in our communications, it is the Marine running and using the system that is the linchpin of our information-assurance program. From a policy perspective, we are tracking to public key infrastructure-enable all unclassified e-mail, as have the Army and others in DoD.

The Marine Corps is solidly behind the DoD program to certify information-assurance professionals and is looking at our current personnel infrastructure to identify appropriate training and education. We are also expanding the use of distance learning for all levels—whether leader, technician or end-user—to emphasize awareness and present a myriad of opportunities for learning. We will continue to espouse our tradition of “training the way we fight, and fighting the way we train” as we support the DoD’s goal of information dominance.

Q: What is your role as director for command, control, communications, and computers and chief information officer for the Marine Corps, and what do you see as the chief accomplishments of your command so far?

A: I oversee, plan, direct and coordinate delivery of IT capabilities that support both the warfighting and business domains of the Marine Corps. The C4 staff influences the combat-development process by establishing policies and standards for the Marine Corps enterprise architecture, and we foster joint and combined interoperability. Some of my major CIO pursuits are IT governance, data strategy, NMCI and information assurance.

Though my tenure has been short, we’ve managed to upgrade some radio systems and networks dedicated to GWOT. We’ve also increased our standards for network security.

Q: What are your most important goals for the future?

A: I have a few:
Revamp our military occupational specialty [MOS] training. I want to transform our Marines from the traditional communications MOS into “network Marines.” The end-state is a well-trained individual Marine who is technically proficient and intellectually agile enough to exploit new technologies needed in the battlespace.
Pursue “leap ahead” technologies.
Harmonize Marine air-ground task force C2.
NMCI-complete NIPRnet transition and make logical choices about SIPRnet.
Improve C4 capabilities on current and future amphibious shipping platforms.
Align our C4 efforts with current base/post/station regionalization initiatives.
Improve our information-assurance posture.

Ellie

dingman
04-24-06, 07:38 PM
Do you have the generals e-mail address or can you give him mine. I have been trying to reach him for months???
Jim Dingman
lonejack@earthlink.net

If not tell him and Rosemary hello.