I was still in the Army when I was part of the group of visionaries from the Signal Corps who foresaw what was coming. We have conceptualized and forwarded the creation of the Army Signal Regiment (ASR), which is, until now, probationary. The move is still being met with resistance and suspicion that Signal Officers are just lobbying after a star rank, just like the Artillery Regiment and the Mechanized Brigade, which are both activated already and have overtaken the move of ASR.

So what is really the reason why the ASR must be activated? Primarily, the Signal Corps is for combat support purposes only. Let me inform clearly everybody that cyber really encompasses all activities of the armed forces. Be it may on land, sea and air. As Gen Omar Bradley said, “The Signal Corps never claimed that they have won wars but there are no wars won without the Signal Corps”. However with the increasing threats on cyber attacks, the Signal Corpsmen (for simplicity, the term includes women) has risen and seized the occasion to be the combat arms in the cyber battle space. Someday, the Signal Corps can already say that they have won wars i.e. cyber wars! Perhaps, it is also high time for the Signal Corps to be reclassified from combat support to combat arms? Come to think of that . . .

Whenever we talk about land warfare, the Army takes the lead; in sea, the Navy; on air, the Air Force; but in cyber, whom we gonna call? The Cyber Busters? We have to rely and look for the group of people who are technically trained and capable on the field of computers. There is nobody else but the Signal Corps. Signal corpsmen are experienced Electronic Warfare Operators who fight in the electromagnetic spectrum. They can be accredited for the capture and neutralization of known rebel commanders. They work in small teams, using the latest electronic equipment to turn the enemy’s communications against them (jamming and anti-jamming. In times of peace and war, electronic Warfare operators are the ever-vigilant electronic ‘ears’ of the Army. [http://m.defencejobs.gov.au]

I remembered the time when I was a very young 2nd lieutenant in Jolo. I heard stories about Signalmen would triangulate the location of Commander Snake of the MNLF. The Brigade Commander, then Colonel Canieso who also better known as canyonero, would start firing his 105s artillery pieces at his target until kingdom comes…

Now, the same group of people, these electronic warriors, are our eyes and ears in the cyberspace. It was in the late 90’s that Information Systems became the core competency of the Signal Corps with the renaming of COMMEL to Communications-Electronics-and-Information-Systems (CEIS). Computers used to be branch immaterial during the era of the AFP Computer Systems Center (CSC). Now CEIS is being renamed again to, a politically right term so to speak, C4S (Command-and-Control, Communications and Cyber Systems). The G6 Staff of the Army is now being called as such.

Recently, The AFP chief of staff Gen. Ricardo Visaya said that the military is aiming for technology advancement, through Signal Corps, to improve our combat power. I say again, combat power! He further said, “The Signal Corps has significantly contributed to bolster the AFP’s cyber workforce which has been our first line of defense against the growing number of digital threats”.¹

The other major services, the Navy and the Air Force, are also building up their own cyber forces. As I have explained earlier, cyber encompass all different dimensions. It may be in land, sea or air. Have you heard about Network Centric? It is a military doctrine pioneered by the United States utilizing robust networks of computers and sensors (C4ISTAR concept) taking and disseminating timely information to the Command and Control for decision-making during wars.

The next question is why is that the Army will be the one taking the task and responsibilities on cyber warfare? Pointing out that the other two major services have their own organization on cyber. The answer is that . . . it is only in the Army who has the Signal Corps as an armed forces occupational specialty (AFOS). Officers in the Navy or Air Force just serve in a signal or cyber units for a short stint and they go back to the main stream of their military career as Navy or Air Force officers and continue to aspire of becoming commanders of bigger commands, their branch-of-service and even the position of Chief-of-Staff of the whole armed forces. Army Signal officers are different. They are dedicated men of their own craft. They are all technically inclined and certified in their own field of work. They continue to serve in different units, climb and remain with Signal to reach the apex of their career. They can only aspire as being the commander of CEISSAFP, the AJ6 and J6 – nothing from the Army. All of these positions are at GHQ. Let me point out that there is no Signal officer who is a general in the Army. Army Signal officers fight it out in GHQ with the other officers from other branches of services, the Navy and the Air Force.

Why not at GHQ who must take command of cyber warfare? The Cyber Security Group of CEISSAFP will be concerned only on securing the CAGNET and its wide area networks. When it comes to Cyber Defense (please read my previous article on the difference of cyber security and cyber defense), it will be the ASR! Just like the Air Force, it started as an Army Air Corps. Nevertheless, ASR will remain in the Army and continue servicing the needs of the Infantry Divisions and its fighting forces. However, it has started organizing surreptitiously the cyber centurion that will be facing off with state-sponsored hackers. They will be our cyber defenders, few chosen men within the corps and recruited from the civilian to enlist or be commissioned as Signaleers. IT practitioners who are already technically advanced on cyber forensic. They will compose the several Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). They will remain on the defensive mode until attacked but ready to retaliate.

With the activation of the ASR, every corpsmen will now have the desire, aspiration and opportunity to rise and become a general inside the firewalls of the Army!

¹ Reference: Armed Forces Building Up Its Cyberspace Capabilities, retrieved 23 November 2016 from http://www.tribune.net.ph/metro/armed-forces-building-up-its-cyberspace-capabilities.