JULY/AUGUST AIRFORCEMAG.COM “In order to get relevant situational understanding, we
are trading information back and forth all the time,” Ellen
Lord, the Defense Department’s acquisition chief, said in
March. “What will happen is, if we do not embrace 5G, and
we are just getting going in 4G in a lot of areas, we are going
to have a latency or a delay in those conversations that could
render everything we have as ine ective.”
Lord expects to see a “huge call to action” this year to create
a national industrial policy for 5G. An “intensive dialogue”
is underway about America’s partnerships in Europe, where
countries including Germany are attracted to infrastructure
products from low-cost Chinese supplier Huawei.
Much of the discussion around 5G centers on concerns
that the Chinese government, using Chinese-built 5G in-
frastructure, will be able to in ltrate and disrupt commu-
nications that rely on that network. Bad actors anywhere
could nd back doors to steal personal information and
intellectual property, or use the network to launch cyber
attacks and spread malware.
“Chinese telecom infrastructure dominance in a theater of
operations may limit the US military’s ability to conduct pre-
cision targeting that leverages signals intelligence collection
on 5G telecommunications networks,” Erica Borghard and
Shawn Lonergan from West Point’s Army Cyber Institute re-
cently warned in a Council on Foreign Relations publication.
The US needs a framework through which it can assess
risks, Krebs said, particularly when overseas operations
rely on networks with Chinese components.
“If it’s a mission in Europe or a mission in Africa or else-
where, if it’s running on a commercial network that’s sup-
ported by Huawei ... they control whether we can commu-
nicate,” Krebs said. “At that point, who cares whether they’re
listening in? they can control whether we can connect dots.
It’s increasingly about availability of the networks.”
None of the four major US mobile carriers—AT&T, Sprint,
T-Mobile, and Verizon—will use Chinese technology in
their 5G infrastructure, Robert L. Strayer, deputy assistant
secretary for cyber and international communications and
information policy at the State Department, told Congress
in May. The next hurdle is convincing allied countries to
pledge the same.
But T. Charles Clancy, executive director of the Hume
Center for National Security and Technology at Virginia
Tech, sees little evidence the Chinese government is driving
security flaws into equipment to benefit its military. He
said 5G will be the most secure wireless network to date.
Clancy does see how China could use Huawei technology
in other countries’ infrastructure to “fundamentally cripple”
command and control during combat operations.
Kania said such problems could come from more than
just Huawei.
“I worry sometimes which vendors and which com-
panies or technologies are we not paying attention to or
scrutinizing as closely because everyone is so concerned
with Huawei,” she said in a May 7 interview with Air Force
Magazine. “From what I can tell, it’s been a somewhat lim-
ited conversation so far, and I would argue, unfortunately,
Huawei has been taking up too much of the oxygen in the
overall conversation.”
As the US spends tens of billions of dollars on advanced
platforms such as the F-35 and aircraft carriers, the military
can’t let that money go to waste by failing to secure the
networks that could enable them, Sen. Richard Blumenthal
(D-Conn.) warned at the May hearing.
That’s why Krebs and the Trump administration see
Huawei as such a critical piece of the puzzle. Security
comes down to supply chain management, Krebs said.
When relying on a global supply chain that runs through
countries whose policies the US may not agree with, the
US must take new measures to ensure its military-grade
parts are cybersecure. That’s why the power to direct the
government to address those supply chain risks now rests
with the Pentagon. And there is little question where
then-Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan
stood on the issue.
“Huawei exemplifies the Chinese Communist Par-
ty’s systemic, organized, and state-driven approach
to achieve global leadership in advanced technology,”
Shanahan told a House Appropriations subcommittee in
May. “China aims to steal its way to a China-controlled
global technological infrastructure, including 5G.”
Pentagon CIO Dana Deasy doesn’t believe Huawei’s
rise around the world is the end of the story. “For me, that
conversation is, let’s get focused on, OK, what is it we now
need to build out, where are the alternative sources we’re
going to go to?” he said. “I’ve never seen a technology that
we’ve ever created where we’ve said, ‘Too late, that’s it,
there’s never going to be another choice.’” JTyndall AFB, Fla.,
after Hurricane
Michael in October- Rebuilding
plans include
installing 5G
networks and
making it a “base
of the future.”
Photo: SSgt. Alexander Henninger