Protecting Critical Infrastructure

To the average person, national defense calls to mind images of men and women in uniform training in physical combat, perhaps with weapons or intense conditioning. However, the modern defense of the U.S. and its assets is more complex and multifaceted than ever before.

Along with defending our lives and our freedoms, many service members are dedicated to protecting the country’s critical infrastructure, which, according to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), includes physical and virtual systems and assets that are so vital to the country that their failure or destruction would have a debilitating impact on national security, the economy or public health and safety. Critical infrastructure protection consists of preventing or mitigating risks resulting from the vulnerabilities of these assets. While this work is happening on a national scale, West Virginians are at the center of defending the U.S. from emergencies and attacks on this important infrastructure.

Leading the Charge

In 1995, Major General Allen Tackett directed his staff to ensure the West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) was positioned to execute any mission related to emerging threats to the U.S.

Tackett wanted the WVNG to serve as the lead National Guard entity for addressing threats to the nation’s critical infrastructure, which led to the construction of two state-of-the-art training facilities in West Virginia: the Memorial Tunnel training range on the West Virginia Turnpike and the National Guard Regional Training Institute at Camp Dawson, WV. These facilities became the center of the state’s National Guard Training Center of Excellence, a status awarded by the National Guard Bureau (NGB) in 2003.

Since then, the Guard has trained, manned and equipped assessment teams to conduct vulnerability and risk assessments aimed at protecting national and defense critical infrastructure, and much of that training has happened in the Mountain State. In 2004, the Joint Interagency Training Center-East (JITC-E) served as an NGB capability with a mission to educate, train and exercise DOD and joint, inter­governmental, interagency and multinational spectrum partners and organizations in conjunction with ongoing homeland defense operations. JITC-E was redesignated the Joint Interagency Training and Education Center (JITEC) in 2007. The JITEC ultimately became a service-recognized military unit and a unique WVNG contribution. The U.S. Army approved the JITEC as an active National Guard unit in 2010. In 2018, the JITEC became the Army Interagency Training and Education Center (AITEC).

Army Interagency Training and Education Center

Today, the AITEC supports the states, territories and government agencies that form the nation’s 10 Homeland Response Forces (HRF) and 17 Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Packages (CERFP) through training courses and exercise evaluations.

“The mission of the 10 HRFs and 17 CERFPs is to support civil authorities at a domestic incident site during specified events—which include use or threatened use of a weapon of mass destruction, terrorist attack or threatened terrorist attack; intentional or unintentional release of nuclear, biological, radiological, toxic or poisonous chemicals; or natural or manmade disasters that result or could result in the catastrophic loss of life or property—by identifying hazards, assessing current and projected consequences, advising on response measures and assisting with appropriate requests for additional support,” says Lieutenant Colonel Bob Luther, deputy commander of the AITEC. “The AITEC individual training branch provides National Guard Bureau-facilitated individual training courses for all 10 HRFs and all 17 CERFPs in the areas of search and extraction, mass casualty decontamination, CBRNE response and command post operations.”

The AITEC also conducts mission-based risk assessments on critical national defense assets, including defense critical infrastructure assets in the U.S. and abroad, in support of a variety of government agencies. The NGB, Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) are all AITEC supported. Annual funding to the AITEC from the NGB, DOD and other agencies totals $21 million, and the unit employs 215 men and women of the Army and Air National Guard in West Virginia. According to Luther, in the next two to three years there is an expectant growth of 30% for full-time, federally funded jobs in West Virginia totaling more than 300 positions and $37 million in subsidies to the state, with 38 of these positions going to support the mission assurance initiative with the DISA and HQDA.

The training and operational support provided by the AITEC offer a national homeland security capability in order to meet current and emerging needs. As the unit now provides operational support to both the NGB and DHS Infrastructure Programs Branch, its diverse skills come with multiple responsibilities. In 2000, Congress granted authority and funding to the DOD to operate consequence management and counter-terrorist training facilities for first responders in West Virginia. Today, WVNG teams continue to develop methodologies, concepts of operation and trainings to meet security needs and sustain their capabilities.

Along with assessing threats to physical infrastructure, the AITEC works toward national security by focusing on innovation and remaining apprised of changes in technology, particularly cyber, according to Luther. Supply chain risk management and industrial control systems are of particular interest at this time, and the AITEC routinely works with academia and other partner agencies to tackle challenges related to these areas. The AITEC also has a cybersecurity assessment team that surveys online traffic and analyzes data for risks.

Mission Assurance Assessment Teams

Part of the AITEC includes the Army’s Mission Assurance Assessment (MAA) team, which is responsible for conducting assessments on strategic Army assets.

“The team identifies risks that might impact the availability and function of defense critical infrastructure necessary to support the U.S. national military strategy,” says First Lieutenant Morgan Minor, member of the Army MAA team.

According to Minor, the team takes an all threats/all hazards approach to assessments, considering a strategic site’s ability to deter, detect and respond to threats—such as an active shooter—and prepare, respond and recover from a hazard, such as severe weather. Each identified threat or hazard is ranked based on impact to the strategic mission, allowing opportunities to prioritize resources, mitigate risk and enhance the overall security posture of defense critical infrastructure.

The WVNG has provided continuity for Army mission assurance efforts since 2011, and today, it has the only MAA team in the country supporting the DISA and one of only two MAA teams supporting the HQDA. The units are located at Camp Dawson in Morgantown, WV, and also in Dunbar, WV. These teams play a strategic role in the national defense of critical assets and infrastructure.

“This says a great deal about WVNG soldiers and airmen. Federal partners choose them for their professionalism and work ethic,” says Luther. “For DISA specifically, this happened in 2018 at an annual conference in Washington, D.C. Our AITEC officer in charge of supporting the HQDA mission assurance program was invited to be a guest speaker on an assessment panel alongside the Navy, Air Force and Marines to serve as the Army subject matter expert for MAAs. DISA leadership in attendance took note of our assessment capability compared to others conducting MAAs. During the 2019 conference, DISA approached us in developing a partnership with the WVNG and AITEC to fill the MAA capability gap within their program. Our partnership began then and continues to grow today.”

Critical Infrastructure Protection Battalion

The AITEC also includes the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Battalion, which globally executes assessments and training specializing in protection, cyber operations, mission assurance, port security and resilience, infrastructure visualization and bombing prevention. The battalion is made up of teams from the HQDA, DISA, USCG and DHS. Last year, the CIP Battalion conducted nearly 140 critical infrastructure and port security assessments and trained 9,530 personnel directly involved in the protection of critical infrastructure and key resources.

“Requirements and processes differ across the agencies. The AITEC bridges those gaps through our interoperable teams,” says Luther. “When the Army mission assurance teams travel to a site, they rely on the existing connections within the other teams. When assessing Army or DISA infrastructure, it’s not uncommon to leverage the DHS team for beyond the fence vulnerabilities such as power generation that may not be part of the Army’s infrastructure but impact it just the same.”

The DISA Mission Assurance Operations Center (MAOC) was established in 2019 and is made up of soldiers and airmen from the CIP Battalion of the WVNG who focus on intentional man-made threats, such as terrorist or cyber attacks or active shooters; accidental man-made threats such as train derailments or supply train shortages; and natural hazard events such as hurricanes or tornadoes.

“The team enhances the ability to understand the nature and risk to DISA-provided supporting infrastructure and the connectivity to ground-based infrastructure linked to critical assets supporting mission partner strategic missions,” says Major Jeremy Samples, director of operations for the DISA MAOC. “This also supports military surge requirements, the implementation of new infrastructure and the refreshment of existing infrastructure.”

According to Samples, as threats and hazards change, the team’s focus also changes.

“Recent Presidential Executive Orders and DOD requirements have placed an increased priority on cybersecurity, especially in our supply chain and supporting infrastructure,” he says. “In addition to DISA’s mission assurance program, the WVNG is a key element supporting DISA’s supply chain risk management program, focusing on building supply chain resiliency and strengthening policies.”

Samples says West Virginians are a factor in much more than just mission assurance for DISA.

“United States European Command has selected DISA and the WVNG to lead the U.S. Locked Shields Team in 2023,” he says. “This is a unique international cyber defense exercise offering the most complex technical live-fire challenge in the world. This annual exercise enables cybersecurity experts to enhance their skills in defending national IT systems and critical infrastructure under real-time attacks. The focus is on realistic scenarios, cutting-edge technologies and simulating the entire complexity of a massive cyber incident, including strategic decision-making, legal and communication aspects.”

The USCG team conducts assessments that focus on high-risk targets, waterways, critical infrastructure, cyber, law enforcement capabilities and emergency management capabilities that support a port. The USCG Headquarters Domestic Port Security Evaluation Division is responsible for conducting port security assessments and evaluating overall security statuses, gauging effectiveness and identifying opportunities for security enhancements.

“The assessments provide an all-hazards look at the port’s overall ability to detect threats, share Marine Transportation System and intelligence information, prevent attacks, protect critical infrastructure and key resources and respond effectively to terrorist attacks,” says Master Sergeant Jason Skidmore, a member of the USCG Port Security Assessment Team. “It also identifies opportunities to mitigate risk and enhance security within the maritime domain by combining potential threat scenarios with vulnerability assessments. The results may help comprehend the port’s overall security status and assist stakeholders in determining how best to invest limited security resources.”

The DHS conducts analyses on regional trends and threats impacting homeland security. The team offers site assistance visits, buffer zone protection planning, infrastructure survey tool visits, infrastructure visualization platform development, counter IED training and regional/headquarters infrastructure analysis support.

“The homeland security team currently focuses on assisting the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the risk management of the agency’s 16 critical infrastructure sectors,” says Captain Mike Howard, executive officer of the DHS team. “The WVNG is the hub for training and deploying National Guard assessors and trainers to assist the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”