Navy Leaders Highlight Need for Virtual Cloud for Environments With Intermittent Connectivity

Rear Adm. Stephen Donald, deputy commander of the U.S. Navy’s 10th Fleet, has asked the industry to identify ways to provide the service with a virtual cloud that can work online and offline.

At the recent Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference, Donald said the cloud should enable offline capabilities, allow seamless reconnection and serve as an extension of enterprise systems to maritime assets afloat and weapons platform, C4ISRNET reported.

At the same event, Rear Adm. Tracy Hines, the cybersecurity division director at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, highlighted the need for the cloud to enable work continuity as the system jumps from online to offline sessions or vice versa, noting that the Navy operates in denied, degraded, intermittent environment. 

The capability is expected to play a key role in case the United States faces Chinese or Russian forces in waters where connectivity is unreliable and is at risk of hacking or jamming. 

The 10th Fleet is the operational arm of Fleet Cyber Command. It provides operational direction through the command’s Maritime Operations Center in Maryland.