Persistent Access, Persistent Threat: Ensuring Military Mobility Against Malicious Cyber Actors

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The U.S. military has a vested interest in the security of the nation’s critical transportation infrastructure. During a conflict, America’s adversaries are likely to attack U.S. critical infrastructure in an attempt to constrain Washington’s policy options, including its capacity to mobilize the armed forces. Over the past year, the intelligence community has revealed how deeply Chinese hackers known as Volt Typhoon penetrated U.S. transportation, energy, and water systems. Meanwhile, other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) malicious cyber operations, including Flax Typhoon, hijacked cameras and routers. Salt Typhoon burrowed deep into U.S. telecommunications networks; Silk Typhoon compromised U.S. Treasury networks.

These hacks have uncovered a dangerous truth: the cybersecurity of the critical air, rail, and maritime infrastructure that underpins U.S. military mobility is insufficient. In addition to enabling disruption, compromising critical infrastructure would allow U.S. adversaries to amass information about the movement of goods and military equipment – and impede America’s ability to deploy, supply, and sustain large forces.

To explore these themes and more, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies hosts Gen. (Ret.) Mike Minihan, former commander, Air Mobility Command; RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, senior director, FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation; and Annie Fixler, director and research fellow, FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation. The conversation is moderated by Bradley Bowman, senior director, FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power.

Gen. (Ret.) Mike Minihan

General (Ret.) Mike Minihan served as commander of the Air Mobility Command (AMC) from 2021-2024. The AMC serves as U.S. Transportation Command’s air component, executing the air mobility mission in support of the joint force, allies, and partners with a fleet of nearly 1,100 aircraft and over 100,000 active-duty Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve Airmen, and civilians. Minihan has served as deputy commander for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and as vice commander of the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base. He entered the Air Force in April 1990 and retired in 2024.

RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery

RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery serves as senior director of FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation and directs CSC 2.0, an initiative that works to implement the recommendations of the congressionally mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission, where he served as executive director. Previously, he served as policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee, coordinating policy efforts on national security strategy, capabilities and requirements, and cyber policy. Montgomery served for 32 years in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear-trained surface warfare officer, retiring as a rear admiral in 2017.

Annie Fixler

Annie Fixler is the director of FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, contributing to the cyber-enabled economic warfare project and the Transformative Cyber Innovation Lab. As an FDD research fellow, she works on issues related to national security implications of cyberattacks on economic targets, and U.S. cyber resilience, and contributes to the work of FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power on offensive and defensive tools of economic coercion. Previously, Fixler worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as a senior research analyst.

Bradley Bowman

Bradley Bowman serves as senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power, where he focuses on U.S. defense strategy and policy. He spent nearly nine years in the U.S. Senate, including six years as the top defense advisor to Senator Kelly Ayotte, then-senior Republican on the Armed Services Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee. Bowman also served as national security advisor to Senator Todd Young and worked as a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.