The Rise of IPv6: Benefits and Costs of Transforming Military Cyberspace

Abstract

As the US Air Force prepares for an age of strategic agility, we become excited with headline-grabbing emerging technologies such as hypersonic aircraft, nanotechnology, and remotely piloted and autonomous systems that will in time become core mission enablers.1 Too often overlooked are the invisible transmission control protocol (TCP) / Internet protocol (IP) networking protocols that revolutionized the military and the world by changing how humans exchange and use information. This networking protocol enhances and enables the Air Force s five core missions: air and space superiority; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); rapid global mobility; global strike; and command and control. Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James notes in the recent strategy document America s Air Force: A Call to the Future that this strategy challenges our Air Force to forge ahead with a path of strategic agility breaking paradigms and leveraging technology just as we did at our inception. 2 Today, the Department of Defense (DOD), Air Force, and nation are focused on technologies important to future development. However, unbeknownst to many people, the structure of the Internet is changing for the first time in its history with the exhaustion of the IP version four (IPv4) protocol and the adoption of IPv6. The DOD as well as the Air Force in particular has a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to lead the nation in the transition to IPv6 to enhance and enable core functions and missions, assuring that our cyber operators are educated and trained to keep pace with technological change. A recent report by the DOD inspector general found several missteps on the part of the department s chief information officer (CIO), US Cyber Command, and the Defense Information Systems Agency in terms of making IPv6 a priority.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2015
Accession Number
ADA617819

Entities

People

  • Panayotis A. Yannakogeorgos

Organizations

  • Air University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Command And Control
  • Commerce
  • Communications Protocols
  • Computing System Architectures
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Department Of Defense
  • Information Operations
  • Information Systems
  • Intrusion Detection
  • Military Operations
  • National Security
  • Network Protocols
  • Networks
  • Standards
  • Training

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Economics
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs
  • Biotechnology
  • Cyber
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
  • Hypersonics
  • Space