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Document created: 1 March 2007
Air & Space Power Journal - Spring 2007

Cyberspace

Just as water molecules and principles of hydrodynamics define the sea domain and just as air molecules and principles of aerodynamics define the air domain, so do the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) and associated electronics and energy propagation define cyberspace. This includes all signals that flow through the EMS—those from cell phones, the Internet, and remote-detonation devices. If it emits, transmits, or reflects, it uses cyberspace.

In September 2006, the Joint Chiefs of Staff endorsed a definition of cyberspace as “a domain characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures.”¹ The key point in the definition—the idea that cyberspace includes the totality of the EMS—enables a more holistic approach to the cyberspace fight. For instance, efforts against an enemy’s Integrated Air Defense System could include offensive and defensive as well as kinetic and nonkinetic effects against the signals (radar and communications), nodes, and networked systems of the entire system—not just the communications or data-storage aspects. The Air Force is the nation’s premier multi­dimensional maneuver force whose strategy and tactics consider agility, reach, speed, stealth, payload, precision, and persistence to deliver global effects at the speed of sound and, with cyberspace capability, at the speed of light. This definition means that cyberspace encompasses but is larger than the Internet because it also includes capabilities such as directed energy, which exists in a part of the EMS that lies outside the interconnected, computer-based, global-information grid.

The Air Force currently dominates the space domain to the extent that it even monitors and tracks thousands of pieces of space “junk.” Although foreign and commercial payloads exist in space, the Air Force unquestionably gives the United States the ability to project power through this domain.

Furthermore, the Air Force provides superiority in the air domain in the place and duration of its choosing. True, various nations claim sovereignty of airspace in close proximity to and over their territorial possessions, but these boundaries are likely unenforceable in the face of deliberate Air Force actions. Our service currently has the capability to deny use of even foreign-national airspace for any specified time and place.

Cyberspace demands an effort comparable to the Air Force’s global, strategic omnipresence in air and space, but today the service can offer only limited options in that domain. Adversaries, be they nation-states or terrorists, can effectively maneuver within cyberspace and therefore can find opportunities to exploit it. They can communicate globally with their agents, spread propaganda and solicit support worldwide, attack opponents’ cyberspace presence (crashing servers and defacing Web sites), and even conduct tactical operations that have kinetic effects, such as jamming GPS frequencies or detonating improvised explosive devices via remotely controlled radio frequencies.

Our nation’s neural network resides in cyberspace. As a highly technologically developed nation and group of armed forces, we cannot afford to risk compromise of that network. Cyberspace superiority permits effective operations on land, at sea, and in air and space. We must be prepared to defeat our enemies by using combined arms—air, ground, sea, space, and cyber weapons systems. Our nation depends on it.

A great deal of our combat capability operates in cyberspace: command and control (C2) systems as well as the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms that ensure battlefield awareness stand as just two examples of critical systems operating in cyberspace—and associatively at risk. We cannot allow our adversaries, enticed by the low entry cost and high payoff of gaining an advantage in cyberspace, to operate freely there. The pervasive nature of pro-jihad Web sites represents a tangible and highly visible example of how our adversaries use elements of cyberspace against us.

Air Force Efforts
in Cyberspace

The Air Force has a long history of fighting in cyberspace. As operations in the EMS gained in importance, a range of cyberspace war fighting emerged, from jamming radio frequencies, to radio electronic combat (a Russian derivative for electronic warfare), to C2 warfare, to research in directed energy, to information-operations capabilities (including computer attack and defense), and so forth. Although all of the services invest substantially in cyberspace capabilities, the Air Force provides the preponderance of assets for the cyber battle.

Unfortunately, a lack of focus of cyberspace forces within the Air Force enterprise has hindered the service’s presentation of these assets to the joint war-fighting effort. Whereas the land and sea services have straightforward command relationships with their cyberspace capabilities and direct lines to the combatant commanders through US Strategic Command or US Joint Forces Command, the Air Force employs various arrangements across different major commands to deliver cyberspace capabilities and effects. For cyberspace to reach its full potential, it must become a capability as crucial as airpower to the joint fight’s attainment of true cross-domain dominance in air, space, cyberspace, land, and sea.

The effects that we could produce in and through cyberspace range from simple deterrence all the way to unmitigated destruction and defeat. However, it is important to emphasize that nonkinetic does not equate to nonlethal. Just as we can use a kinetic attack to terrify rather than kill, so can we employ nonkinetic attacks to deliver a full spectrum of effects to irritate or cause tremendous loss of life and destruction of property. The proper force presentation will allow precise use of these effects in accordance with the rules of engagement.

Examples of effects realizable in the cyber realm might include suppressing enemy cyber defenses, co-opting and controlling enemy defenses on an as-desired basis, and conducting close cyber support that involves cyber operations designed to ensure freedom to carry out cyber/noncyber operations in safety or decoy operations to lure enemy cyber operations away from friendly activities/forces. All aspects of air war will have some equivalent role in cyber war.

Recent Actions

On 7 December 2005, Pearl Harbor Day, the chief of staff and I proclaimed a transformational mission for the Air Force: “to fly and fight in Air, Space and Cyberspace.”² The explicit mention of cyberspace reflects the recognition of cross-domain interdependence. Cyber superiority is the prerequisite to effective operations across all strategic and operational domains. The Air Force has a nonnegotiable commitment to deliver sovereign options for the United States through cross-domain dominance of air, space, and cyberspace. This pronouncement gives cyberspace the same emphasis accorded to the air and space domains.

In January 2006, we also established an Air Staff–level Cyberspace Task Force under guidance of the Senior Executive Service. Manning consists of personnel drawn from across the Air Staff and experts from the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard (ANG). The task force researched all aspects of an Air Force role in cyberspace, discussed options with our sister services and at the general-officer level across the Air Force, developed briefings to focus the discussion, and formulated options for a road map to assist in the development of capability.

In September 2006, the chief and I tasked the four-star leadership from major Air Force commands with cyberspace capability to deliver a range of options for evolving a major cyberspace combat command. Thus far this has led to identifying Lt Gen Robert Elder and Eighth Air Force as the commander and resident command for cyberspace. We will evaluate recommendations on the size and composition of this force and implement a comprehensive plan, including acquisition, force development, and capabilities to posture the Air Force to lead in the cyberspace domain.

The Vision

As in other domains in which military forces conduct operations, cyberspace can have both offensive and defensive components. Red Flag exercises, well known as training components of air warfare, will also become a staple of cyber warfare. In this context, we must note that the defensive nature of cyber warfare refers to protecting the ability to conduct offensive operations—not the more common view of defense as information assurance. Although the latter is important, taller and thicker firewalls will not ensure cyberspace safety. This much is crucial: The cyber realm embodies far more than just network warfare. Cyberspace is a domain, like land, where each of the principles of war applies. To grasp this concept requires a major institutional and cultural shift in war planning and operations.

The Air Force holds certain advantages in delivering global effects. Witness the air and space operations center (AOC) weapons system, which enables the joint force air component commander of a joint war-fighting force to leverage networked C2 of effects across air/space/cyber domains. Presently weighted toward providing air-delivered effects, with space support and reachback to cyber capabilities, the AOC could evolve into a coordination and tasking center for the complete range of the Air Force’s air, space, and cyberspace assets.

The Air Force will develop a long-range plan for the future cyber warrior while drawing upon established expertise throughout the Air Force across multiple disciplines and functional communities. Core competencies such as electronic warfare, space control, and network-warfare operations are key candidates for an initial core cadre, with others as close competitors.

Our people hold the key to success, and we have just the hard-charging, technologically savvy workforce to lead us there. We need to seek and develop Total Force talent to ensure cyberspace dominance. We need to recruit and develop in all components of the Air Force. We also must capitalize on the talent and expertise of our Guard and Reserve members who may have direct ties and long experience in high-tech industry.

We have already instituted several initiatives along these lines. For example, the 262nd Information Aggressor Squadron, an ANG unit in Washington State, leverages the industry expertise of guardsmen employed at Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, and other technology firms from the western side of the state. The 177th Information Aggressor Squadron in Kansas, another ANG unit, draws upon individuals from local firms such as Sprint, Boeing, and Koch Industries. In each of these examples as well as the Texas connection with Guard and Reserve personnel drawn from the Austin Corridor (a well-known technology center) and serving at a variety of units within the 67th Network Warfare Wing and Air Force Information Warfare Center, we are moving forward the Total Force nature of the cyber realm by effectively bringing together active, Guard, and Reserve warriors.

We plan to leverage the Air Force’s appeal to our technologically savvy American populace. Cyberspace efforts will allow us to fight in agile, scalable groups using networked entrepreneurial approaches and fresh ideas from the “Cyberspace Generation.” We will develop a coherent cyberspace enterprise to foster a force of twenty-first-century warriors capable of delivering the full spectrum of kinetic and nonkinetic, lethal and nonlethal effects across all domains. Because our nation depends on us not only to fly and fight but also to win, we must have the ability to deliver sovereign options in cyberspace, just as we do in air and space.

Notes

1. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Net-Centric Operations Campaign Plan (Washington, DC: Joint Staff; Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Systems Directorate [J-6]; October 2006), 62, http://www.jcs.mil/j6/ c4campaignplan/JNO_Campaign_Plan.pdf (accessed 9 January 2007).

2. “SECAF/CSAF Letter to Airmen: Mission Statement,” [7 December 2005], Air Force Link, http://www.af.mil/ ­library/viewpoints/jvp.asp?id=192 (accessed 9 January 2007).

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