text: Contested Deployments
  Adversary Impacts on Civilian Infrastructure
  Exercises and research projects provide insight into how peer threats could disrupt the
  deployment of Army forces by targeting civilian infrastructure. In the Army Cyber
  Institute’s EXERCISE JACK VOLTAIC 3.0, military, interagency, municipal, state, and
  commercial partners collaborated to assess interdependencies and available actions
  by different stakeholders in response to such targeting.
  During the scenario, the movement of military equipment was disrupted by a
  combination of traffic delays; social media-incited protests; port access manipulation;
  the manipulation of rail and vessel cargo manifests; natural gas and electrical
  disruptions; and, ultimately, interference with the weight distribution for the automated
  load plan for a ship in port (causing it to tip and dump containers into the shipping
  channel).
  None of the measures, taken individually, prevented movement of unit equipment from
  reaching the destination by the required delivery date. Taken together, however, the
  actions caused cascading effects that challenged Army unit and installation leaders,
  port officials, and state and municipal government and law enforcement personnel.
  C-18. Units establish and maintain an accurate common operational picture (COP) when subordinate or
  supported units and equipment are en route to ports of embarkation. This includes maintaining visibility of
  friendly forces and potential threat actions. It also encompasses awareness of partner civilian and military
  entities supporting the deployment, including law enforcement, mobilized reserve component units, and air
  and rail activities.
  C-19. Deploying units and installations coordinate with agencies at ports of embarkation to take action should
  an adversary’s efforts impact deployment operations. This coordination can help Army forces rapidly adjust
  to emerging circumstances. Unit and installation personnel that manage deployments must rapidly develop
  new transportation plans if needed, using previously developed branch plans as a start point.
  C-20. When load planning, Army leaders and staffs must work with transportation authorities to ensure
  sufficient enabling forces are paired with combat arms forces during transit. Army leaders, working with
  transportation officials, develop methods to effectively load combat-configured forces in a manner that
  maximizes available deck space on the transport vessel while making these units operationally relevant upon
  arrival. Generally, it is desirable for tactical units to be configured as company teams or battalion task forces
  with the requisite supporting enablers to allow immediate employment.
  C-21. In most circumstances when threat actions have not significantly degraded port operations, the port
  support activity stevedores load Army equipment once it arrives at the port of embarkation for transport to
  the operational theater. In these circumstances, Army forces effectively lose physical control of this
  equipment until it arrives in theater. Prior to departure for the port, Army forces coordinate with
  transportation and port officials to ensure that unit containers, rolling stock, and other unit equipment sets are
  loaded in ways to balance requirements for transport efficiency, combat readiness upon offloading, and risk
  to readiness if a transport vessel or craft is destroyed en route.
  PORT TO PORT
  C-22. Ports of embarkation in the strategic support area, whether in the United States or overseas, are likely
  targets of cyberspace attack, space capability degradation or denial, and other impacts designed to reduce
  capabilities or capacity as U.S. forces conduct deployment operations into other theaters. During armed
  conflict, enemy forces have the range and capacity to target ports with long-range fires, special operations
  forces, and other capabilities.
  C-23. Port authorities open, close, and manage port operations based on their pre-existing requirements, not
  based on what is necessarily most advantageous to a given unit’s deployment requirements. This might
  include requirements for other Army forces, the joint force, or other government or commercial entities