U.S. military modernizes communications following Operation Epic Fury

Following Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. Army and Air Force are implementing significant changes to their communication and command and control (C2) architectures to improve agility and resilience.

Army NETCOM commander Maj. Gen. Jacqueline McPhail reported that the Army successfully executed a ‘digital passage of lines,’ transferring network and C2 services from Southwest Asia to Europe. This move aimed to ensure that Middle East network workloads could be maintained by other theaters if critical communication infrastructure was targeted by Iran during the conflict. This shift is part of a broader effort to move away from isolated geographic networks toward a unified ecosystem.

The Air Force is also modernizing its approach after finding its previous communication models cumbersome. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Phillips noted that the service is moving away from large, heavy communication packages toward more portable, agile systems that can be operated by fewer personnel. Additionally, the Air Force identified a critical need to develop robust PACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency) plans, as recent operations revealed a lack of communication redundancies.