he Joint Information Environment, or JIE, will be the future network foundation for all services of the U.S. military, the Army’s chief information officer said."Right now, we have too many disparate networks, we have too many vulnerabilities for our adversaries to exploit," Lt. Gen. Robert Ferrell said, speaking during the Association of the United States Army’s Hot Topic forum on Army Networks in July."The JIE will be a single, joint network," he said. "It’s one shared infrastructure, one standard."Ferrell said the JIE will allow uninterrupted mission command with all of the Department of Defense, "providing secure data at the point of need regardless of location or operation."The JIE is fundamental to the Army’s way ahead, and, more than anything else, the Army needs the right partnerships with industry and DoD to make the JIE work, Ferrell said."The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are all committed to moving toward JIE," he emphasized.The Army has taken a broad strategic approach toward JIE, Ferrell said, adding that JIE will effectively support the Army Operating Concept, "Win in a Complex World," by enabling expeditionary mission command.Specifically, the JIE "will enable in-route communications for our deploying forces, from their home stations into theater," Ferrell said.It will also allow communication between joint forces even before an operation starts.Ultimately, the JIE will provide the strategic anchor that supports all Army operational efforts, Ferrell said."One of the most visible components of the Army’s support to JIE has been our network modernization effort," he said.A key part of this effort is the implementation of the Joint Regional Security Stacks, or JRSS."JRSS performs firewall functions, intrusion detection and prevention, enterprise management, and virtual routing and forwarding," Ferrell said.Currently, JRSS implementation is ongoing at more than a dozen sites in the continental United States and overseas, he said."Most importantly, we remember that JIE is not just about stacks, routers, and data centers – JIE is about operational impact," Ferrell noted.