America’s Military Plans Depend on Infrastructure It Doesn’t Secure

The Cipher Brief | Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery

The United States military faces critical operational vulnerabilities due to its reliance on unsecure, privately owned commercial transportation and communications networks to deploy forces globally. Chinese cyber operators have compromised hundreds of domestic civilian logistics, energy, and transit systems, allowing Beijing to potentially delay American troop movements during a conflict.

This systemic vulnerability undermines the rapid mobilization capabilities required by every major American war plan, from deterring aggression in Europe to prevailing in the Indo-Pacific. Modern warfare increasingly targets the digital infrastructure sustaining combat power, as demonstrated by Russian cyberattacks against Ukrainian transportation and energy networks. To mitigate these risks, federal authorities must establish harmonised cybersecurity standards across transportation sectors and provide dedicated funding to under-resourced civilian operators. Furthermore, the Department of Defense must integrate degraded communications, corrupted logistics data, and domestic cyber disruptions into national military exercises to practice fighting through contested logistics.

Comment

The pre-positioning of the Chinese cyber actor Volt Typhoon within US dual-use infrastructure at critical hubs like Guam and West Coast ports redefines the traditional doctrine of strategic interdiction. Rather than attempting kinetic denial of naval assets in the Taiwan Strait, this operational posture seeks to paralyse the mobilisation phase of the US Joint Force at the point of origin. This doctrinal evolution exploits the legal and operational boundaries between civilian commercial operators and military command structures, rendering conventional deterrence frameworks ineffective against non-kinetic, pre-conflict disruption. Consequently, the geographic sanctuary historically enjoyed by continental US mobilisation bases is effectively neutralised before any formal declaration of hostilities.

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