By Noah Shachtman
October 08, 2008 11:29:00 AM
Categories: Info War
Courtesy Of: Wired Blog Network [ Wired ]
The Air Force is going ahead with plans to put together a force that will wage wars online. But it won't be a full-fledged Cyber Command.ALSO:
In August, the Air Force put its controversial effort to put together a "Cyber Command" on hold, after the air service's leadership was sacked -- and after it became painfully obvious that no one was really sure what the new command would really do.
During the Air Force's senior-level "Corona" meeting in Colorado Springs last week, the generals decided to drop the Cyber Command idea, Air Force Times' Michael Hoffman reports. Instead, the service's cadre of information warriors will become a "numbered air force," under Air Force Space Command.
The bureaucratic change, seemingly inconsequential to outsiders, will have an enormous impact within the military. The new network warfare group will be "nowhere near" as big or as important as previously planned, notes reader EM, a former Air Force intelligence officer. "The Air Force is continuing cyber work, but the service won't be the end-all-be-all of cyber."
For years, the Air Force's leader argued that computer networks were a warfighting "domain" -- on par with air or space as a place for combat. The service even changed its mission statement to read, "As Airmen, it is our calling to dominate Air, Space, and Cyberspace." By putting the online force under Space Command, that argument has been effectively nullified.
The Air Force did decide to put together a new command, however. It'll be for nuclear weapons, and not network ones. The new Air Force Strategic Command will "provide a clear chain of command for all Air Force nuclear forces; and will allow for one-to-one alignment between operations and sustainment with the Nuclear Weapons Center," according to an e-mail obtained by Inside Defense.
Until 1992, the Air Force's Strategic Air Command controlled nearly every aspect of the country's nuclear bomber and missile operations. Then, it was disbanded -- and nuclear standards have been slipping ever since, critics say.
Air Force Cyber Command Could Return, With Nukes
Air Force Suspend Controversial Cyber Command
Air Force Wobbles on Plan for Cyber 'Dominance'
Air Force Secretary Looks Back in Cyber
Air Force Spreads Cyber Command to All 50 States
26 Years After Gibson, Pentagon Defines 'Cyberspace'
Pentagon Plan: 'Eliminate' Space, Cyberspace Threats
Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers
Air Force Readying Cyber Strikes
Air Force Cyber Command = Big Money
Gahh!!! Cyber-Terrorists!!!! Run!!!!
Air Force Blocks Access to Many Blogs
Air Force's New Target: Phishing
Welcome to Cyberwar Country, USA
Clinton-Era Air Force Secretary Returns
Moseley: Gates was Right
Bosses Nuked, Some Air Force Missileers Cheers
Ten More Reasons for the Air Force Purge
Air Force Chief, Secretary to Resign
Gates: Air Force Must Do More
Gates, Air Force Battle Over Robot Planes
Gates: F-22 Has No Role in War on Terror
Gates: Time for the Pentagon to Actually Wage War
What Nukes? Oh, THOSE Nukes ...
Lose a Nuke, Lose Your Job
Nuke Standards Slipping
Gates Orders Nuke Count
After Losing Nukes, Air Base Flunks Security Test
Video: Air Force's $81 Million Ad
Air Force's Scare-Mongering Space Ad Shoves Facts Out of the Airlock
Air Force Pulls 'Misleading' Space Ad
No comments:
Post a Comment