Time For Cyber Force
With the House passage of the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, a committee amendment is now on the table that would require the National Academy of Sciences to “study the creation of an independent Cyber Force” - a seventh U.S. armed Force.
A great academic institution, the Academy. But, frankly, another study. Another task force. Another year gone before the report. The quintessential DC punt on a perceived difficult bureaucratic issue. Sadly, our enemies in cyberspace don’t have the same problem. Russia and China have their Cyber Forces.
The time is now for a U.S. Cyber Force.
A Domain Ill Protected
Land, sea, air, space - cyber. All domains required to be defended by our military worldwide. We hold our own in the first four. We are having real trouble in Cyber.
We have 290 million people with internet access in the U.S. We are certainly a dominant player. We founded the thing after all. However, while we rested on our laurels, the rest of the world caught and surpassed us - five billion person occupy this domain. Many of them bad actors with intent to do us harm.
Our response has been slow to what represents a true 21st century threat to our nation’s security. An intangible domain where there are no borders or boundaries and little security. A world turned upside down where a North Korea or an ISIS can have equal power with us. Frankly, we are adrift in a 20th century bureaucratic response to it.
We have responded militarily with a Cyber Command. Too little in my opinion. A Force, a Cyber Force, is desperately needed to lead our military organizing, training, and equipping our military forces to deal with this challenge.
A 21st Century Domain - A 20th Century Response
The primary challenge for political DC in dealing with cyber is the speed with which its development has taken place. It was the somewhat the same problem with Space; only worse. We simply dominated the space domain for 50 years. However, from the mid-2000's until today, China and Russia have focused on undermining our lead role in Space. But at least, we had a long established military bureaucracy and strategies with an Air Force in the lead.
In the Cyber Domain, there was no such military presence during the rush of cyber space expansion in the early 2000’s. Only by May 2010 did the U.S. finally establish a Cyber Command.
It is a strange, hybrid beast. An unusual arrangement of military and intelligence co-located with the National Security Agency drawing on its considerable resources and expertise. This Command is charged with defending and attacking our enemies in cyber space and coordinating with our allies.
It also currently maintains a heavy and bureaucratically difficult role for a Command with “operational control” of the Cyber Mission Teams through six subordinate headquarters: four Service components include Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), Navy Fleet Cyber Command (FLTCYBER), Air Forces Cyber (AFCYBER), and Marine Forces Join Forces Headquarter-Cyber (JFHQ-C), Cyber National Mission Forces (CNMF), and Joint Forces Headquarters DoD Information Network (JFHQ-DoDIN)
A Force - on the level of the other services - with a place at the Joint Chief of Staff table - that’s the power we need in Cyber spac. As the DoD shaping Goldwater-Nichols Act laid out in 1986, a Force is responsible for organizing, training, and equipping forces, which are then presented to the commands. That’s true control.
The Time Is Now
We are at an inflection point when the USG must stop living with 20th century concepts of endlessly mulling issues.
The pieces are already present. What should be done is a Task force composed of DoD/IC players run out of the SecDef office charged with setting up a Cyber Force by mid/late 2025. And, as challenging as it is, it must be done with Senate and House Armed Services members and staff fully informed.
The sooner something can be introduced in a new session of Congress the better. Spring of 2025 with an action plan should be the goal. Not another year of pontification. The time to act is now.
Ronald A. Marks is a former CIA and Capitol Hill staffer and IT Executive. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he is Faculty Member of NSI and a Visiting Professor at George Mason University, the Schar School of Policy and Government.
Image: Ideogram
You Might Also Read:
___________________________________________________________________________________________
If you like this website and use the comprehensive 7,000-plus service supplier Directory, you can get unrestricted access, including the exclusive in-depth Directors Report series, by signing up for a Premium Subscription.
- Individual £5 per month or £50 per year. Sign Up
- Multi-User, Corporate & Library Accounts Available on Request
- Inquiries: Contact Cyber Security Intelligence
Cyber Security Intelligence: Captured Organised & Accessible
