What will a AF Cyber Squadron Look Like?

Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 17:10:40 -0500

In his 2016 Speech, Gen Hyten (AFPSC/CC) mention the concept of an Air Force Cyber Squadron (CYCS) (dubbed AF Cyber Squadron-Next).

http://gazette.com/air-force-to-develop-cyber-squadrons-gen.-hyten-says-at-broadmoor-symposium/article/1569128

What should this organization look like? How do you change a mx culture to an ops culture? Should each CyCS be tailored to protect wpn/msn systems?

Air Force to develop cyber-squadrons, Gen. Hyten says at Broadmoor symposium

The Air Force plans to revolutionize how it handles computer warfare by beefing up its force of cyberspace experts while contracting out easier jobs, like running the service's network. Gen. John Hyten announced the groundbreaking shift at the Rocky Mountain Cyberspace Symposium on Tuesday at The Broadmoor, which drew more than 2,000 electronic security experts. Under Hyten's plan, each of the Air Force's wings will include a cyberspace...

Response by Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin made Feb 21 at 2016 8:26 PM

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 20:26:24 -0500

Personally I see it as an overkill of cyber units if they are sent to each Base as part of the Ops Squadrons. The intent I understood is to defend each of our bases which will make for a very board squadron. I am thrilled to see the emphasis on cyber as I spent most of my career pushing it and demonstrating the things which can be done if we're not vigilant enough, but the folks making these decisions could use more folks with cyber experience.

For now I am among the national teams supporting the defense of the nation as a whole. We just formed 5 new squadrons and most have a way to go before IOC. Still, I am looking forward to the eventual outcome.

Response by GySgt Carl Rumbolo made Feb 21 at 2016 8:32 PM

GySgt Carl Rumbolo — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 20:32:55 -0500

12 Northrop-Grumman F-70B drones equipped with a Google-IBM AQ-2 AI , Mk2 high energy laser and advanced hypersonic missiles. The drones will use a newly developed GE aerospace engines capable of low orbit flight. The airfield will be guarded by AI controlled ground drones .....

Response by Col Joseph Lenertz made Feb 22 at 2016 8:51 AM

Col Joseph Lenertz — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 08:51:25 -0500

Great question. While it might sound cool, the devil is in the details. The AF Trains, Organizes, and Equips its forces...to support the Joint Force Commander...that's its role. Ops units train at home base, but do their wartime mission when assigned to COCOMs/JTFs. Offensive cyber requires very high level approval...well above a JFACC. So, how will AF Cyber Squadrons, assigned to USCYBERCOM under STRATCOM, support the PACOM commander when he needs to retaliate against a Chinese cyber attack? Who has COCOM, who has OPCON, who has TACON, and how does approval for execution of a strike get done? Until we know how they will support the JFC in going offensive, they will still be regarded as base Comms support personnel.

Response by Maj Walter Kilar made Feb 23 at 2016 7:27 AM

Maj Walter Kilar — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 07:27:38 -0500

General Hyten came from the secret squirrel world, and he seems to embrace change to adapt to the changing environment, so he probably has a decent idea of what a cyber squadron should look like. The hard part is getting everyone from the President down to Airman Snuffy to buy into the details. Nobody knows what those details are, because policy, doctrine, manning, training, and funding do not all change with the times at the same rate.

There will be a difference between what the squadrons should look like and what they will look like. They should not look like base communications units. They should probably be collocated (physically or virtually) with other secret squirrels. They should be selectively manned through Green Door. Speaking of Green Door, those Airmen should be sheltered from standard deployments while assigned to cyber squadrons, and "deployed in place" while ADCON to the base, OPCON to the COCOM JTF, TACON to the JFCC-Cyber. For defense the squadrons would be OPCON to USCYBERCOM; for offense that OPCON may shift to, say, USPACOM in the form of a cyber mission team while they operate a classified weapon. Cyber squadrons should always be drilling offense and defense. Approvals for deploying effects is a difficult discussion to navigate through due to policy, as well as technical difficulties in proving attribution. Just because the computer sees an inbound IP address originating from China, it does not necessarily mean that it is actually from China. We cannot go to war against China over solar flares rebooting computers or something crazy like that.

There will be many changes and many missteps before we arrive at the correct way to operate cyber squadrons.

Response by GySgt Carl Rumbolo made Feb 23 at 2016 9:07 AM

GySgt Carl Rumbolo — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 09:07:00 -0500

In a more serious vein - how does the air force expect to hold on to it's 'cyber experts' purely from a retention point of view.

Response by Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 24 at 2016 9:35 AM

Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 09:35:42 -0500

Brew Dawg-

Great discussion. In my opinion, the Cyber Squadron is needed as the COS and NOS have found themselves overstretched and the pendulum will need to swing back to where bases have more involvement in securing their part of the battle space. That means a more operational focus, and more rights (appropriate to their level) on the network. Can't tell you how many times I've told my base leadership "If it was mine to fix, I would have fixed it already." The bases, with the right permissions, can ease the strain while being more responsive to their base's missions. What I have never had explained is who takes on the "Comm Squadron" roles, as many of those will still need to be done. And does the new unit report to the base leadership or 24 AF?

But we're thinking too small. I think cyber defense and offense are both complex mission sets that defy national and governmental boundaries and jurisdictions, and should be handled as such. A good problem set to use as a baseline is terrorism, and the JIATF(s) created to combat this problem set. If given the right legal authorities and capabilities (and mindset), a JIATF under CYBERCOM could move as fast, if not faster than our enemies, especially as the operating concept has already been established in F3EA. To bring it back to the original question, would the Cyber Squadron have play in this construct? I think would depend on the threat and what forces need to be presented. And would most likely involve the CMTs.

Lastly, the Cyber Squadron is our best bet to rebuild the experience we can't currently build at the base level.

Response by SSgt Mark Steed made Feb 24 at 2016 11:26 AM

SSgt Mark Steed — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 11:26:11 -0500

When I left the USAF I went into a career in police work. I spent 2004 - 2011 doing "cyber crimes". I went to forensic schools with a hand full of USAF folks. I really suspect, and think it logical, for Cyber Squardons to target specific threat areas and not do a one size fits all approach. A hacker is defined as someone who has mastered one software and can compromise it, or at least it used to be. To think that we can train airmen to attack or counter everything that's out there is unreasonable. I don't much care how it's organized and think it needs to be designed to be very flexible and allow for perpetual growth in scope, capability and philosophy. A cyber warfare unit needs to be ruthless and playing with one hand behind it's back till the SHTF. It needs to have the freedom to be creative, which tends to go against the grain of military culture. But, we should always play to win.

We had many discussions in infrastructure protection (task force). Obviously an enemy would love to bring down the whole house of cards. That should always be our proverbial ace in the hole, always. It takes resources and training. This is a scenario where an ounce of prevention really is worth a hundred pounds of cure. Take down the power grid for a month and see what cure that takes. Go Air Force!

Response by Maj Mike I. made Apr 22 at 2016 6:57 PM

Maj Mike I. — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 18:57:43 -0400

Isn't cyber security part of information technology? What's next virtual Airmen? Let's just virtually enlist everyone that plays Call of Duty, and increase the bloat of general officers and civilians that don't have real jobs!