The Army should integrate cyber warfare, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems to maintain the information advantage, according to the author of a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.

“Information is the raison d’être for command and control, situational understanding, decision-making and nearly all action across the warfighting functions,” retired Lt. Col. Amos Fox writes. “Bold steps are required for the Army to maximize its potential in the information dimension. It must carefully examine how to reorganize its forces, rewrite its concepts and doctrines, and reimagine the battlefield.”

In “Information Advantage: Using Cyber Warfare and HMI to Seize the Initiative,” Fox argues that data and information should be “reimagined” for future battlefields. Fox is a fellow with Arizona State University’s Future Security Initiative. He also works as an independent defense and security studies analyst, hosts the “Revolution in Military Affairs” podcast and serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of Military Studies.

Fox cites the Army’s definition of information advantage as “when a force holds the initiative in terms of situational understanding, decision-making and relevant actor behavior.”

Cyber and information advantage will be the focus of an upcoming AUSA Hot Topic. The daylong event on July 2 will take place at AUSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and feature leaders and experts from the Army, the State Department and industry.

There will be a series of presentations and discussions on the Army’s approach to gain and maintain information advantage and man, train and equip its information forces.

For more information or to register, click here.

In his paper, Fox writes that the Army should develop “data and tempo forces,” which would operate in the same space as the XVIII Airborne Corps’ data warfare company and the service’s multidomain task forces.

"Data and tempo forces should be organized to collect information pertaining to the enemy and the operating environment, transmit false pictures of reality to the adversary, influence the enemy toward opportune dispositions with offensive fires, cyber and other battlefield shaping technology and manipulate the tempo of an opponent’s operations,” Fox writes.

Incorporating information into warfighting also will transform “the close fight,” he writes.

“At a distance, military commanders have time and space to sift through information and move accordingly,’” Fox writes. “AI-driven systems in this space assist in collecting and analyzing battlefield data and in generating recommendations. The goal … is to create separation on the battlefield, providing room for better informed reaction rather than having to operate in close combat.”

Harnessing the power of information will allow the Army to outpace its adversaries in future conflicts, Fox writes.

“The information and the information dimension is no longer the status quo realm of information and information operations,” he writes. “By viewing information through the lens of data and tempo pathways, Army forces can proactively account for how to obtain information advantage and situational information dominance. Consequently, Army forces can eliminate a hostile force from the battlefield before it is capable or ready to put its own forces in the field.”

Read the paper here.