Army names new director to Network Cross-Functional team

The Army yesterday announced Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey as the new director in charge of tactical network modernization, according to an announcement made by the service's chief of staff.

The announcement was made as a part of several general officer assignments. Rey, director of the J-6/Chief Information Officer at U.S. Central Command, will replace Maj. Gen. Pete Gallagher, who has been the director of the Network CFT since its inception.

"BG Jeth Rey is the perfect choice to serve as the next director of the [Network] CFT," Gallagher said in a statement provided to Inside Defense. "His years of experience as a soldier, NCO, warrant officer and officer with a multitude of conventional and special operations signal and cyber assignments make him uniquely qualified to lead this critical modernization effort for the Army."

An Army spokeswoman told Inside Defense Rey's start date has not yet been determined.

In his new role, Rey will be responsible for leading tactical network modernization, one of the service's six modernization priorities. The Network CFT along with the program executive office for command, control, communications-tactical has been developing "capability sets," a series of two-year sets being fielded until fiscal year 2027 that include improved tactical network tools.

The service plans on fielding the first of these sets, Capability Set 21, this fiscal year. CS21 includes capabilities like single-channel radios, tethered drones and tactical assault kits. The Network CFT is also conducting a formal program of record test this month for CS21 and communications exercises ahead of Project Convergence 2021.