Luckey: Reserve needs more 'expansive' focus

While the Army Reserve has increased training for cyber operations in a potential high-end conflict, it should also keep aware of developing more advanced technologies, according to its chief.

Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey told reporters at an Association of the United States Army breakfast this morning, "I think we should be careful about being too focused on cyber and not focused enough on all aspects of the electromagnetic spectrum, the speed at which artificial intelligence may become a challenge for humans . . . I think [cyber] has become 'the thing,' and we've got to be more expansive."

Reservists have been completing exercises at the National Training Center, "trying to create disruption in the electromagnetic spectrum," like jamming, Luckey said.

Luckey has spoken before about "digital key terrain," which includes "high-end digital -- whether it's quantum computing, cyber, artificial intelligence, et cetera, -- there are certain places in America where there's a lot of stuff going on, and there's concentrations or pockets where there's a lot of energy."

The Reserve has been working to recruit talent in the technology sector for Army Futures Command, which is looking to capitalize on the sort of rapid innovation rampant in Silicon Valley and to that end shares office space with a startup incubator in Austin, TX.

Luckey said the two recent locations the Reserve set up to recruit tech talent -- in Mountain View, CA, and Cambridge, MA -- are "getting a buzz going" for recruitment.

He said the Reserve is ahead of its recruiting goal this year. "I'm not worried about us . . . I think we're doing a pretty good job of recruiting really good talent."

However, as part of a larger conversation about the relationship of major, global corporations and nation-states, he said Silicon Valley companies don’t necessarily think of themselves as "American businesses, and I'm not saying they should . . . But that doesn't translate to me as a lack of loyalty, focus or commitment on the part of the individual to the Constitution," he said.