Modernization move

US Army Lines Up Units for 2024 IT Network Consolidation

The U.S. Army will focus on consolidating the Army National Guard, the Army Reserve and the Army Materiel Command’s information technology networks in 2024, onward to centralizing the service branch to just a single IT network by 2027. A unified network connection of the enterprise and tactical edge is one of the Army’s major modernization priorities, as seen in the request for information from potential offerors that the service released in January 2023.

According to Maj. Gen. Christopher Eubank, commander of the Network Enterprise Technology Command and a speaker at a past Potomac Officers Club event, “the Army has allocated the resources for the centralization. In just over a year, the service’s IT portfolio has already been consolidated to 14 from 42 separate organizational networks, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Eubank told the news website that the integration process proceeds each time NETCOM consults a partner and his team “learn something new about a network.” Besides the three Army units’ networks targeted for 2024 consolidation, NETCOM will also look into the Army Corps of Engineers’ IT structure for a complete picture before initiating steps on network convergence.

The tactical network of the 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord is another immediate task for Eubank’s team. In February, NETCOM will test whether the division’s network can be integrated into a single Army network without jeopardizing the division’s access to the data and resources it needs.