Michael Hadjitheodosiou’s Post

There is one clear solution to address the military’s current approach to generating forces for cyberspace operations: creating a new branch of the armed forces for cyberspace.

There is one clear solution to address the military’s current approach to generating forces for cyberspace operations: creating a new branch of the armed forces for cyberspace.

This March Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) report has apparently gained traction, as the US Congress is now considering the establishment of a Cyber Force as the 6th armed service, following the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force. https://lnkd.in/gYuih7WS The current posture suffers from a variety of issues. #Talent is scarce, of course, but it hasn't been managed well. More broadly, there are deep concerns about workplace #culture. The existing management model doesn't transfer well into cyberspace. “Under no circumstances would a cyber officer be asked to lead a squadron of aircraft," says one Marine Corps captain, "and yet the opposite is often true.” Reading about the challenges in an undisputed world-class #cyberpower, I have even less patience for the occasional assertion that #Taiwan can't spend more of its GDP on defense because of a US weapons backlog. Any money it spent in this manner would create lasting benefits which would tend to stay inside the country.

in the future, there will be only two branches of military services: virtual forces (get a proper name for "soft"ware in fatigues... "meta"ware would do it...) and concrete (real) forces that deal with "hardware" (all of it...). Get used to it!

Military think tank - 'Foundation for Defence of Democracies' - urges U.S. Congress to create a 'United States Cyber Force.' I have often wondered why we never created a cyber branch of the military, especially after the creation of the U.S. Space Force. But, then again, we never created more that a Special Operations Command. https://lnkd.in/g2AuFvnF "In the U.S. military, an officer who had never fired a rifle would never command an infantry unit. Yet officers with no experience behind a keyboard are commanding cyber warfare units. This mismatch stems from the U.S. military’s failure to recruit, train, promote, and retain talented cyber warriors. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines each run their own recruitment, training, and promotion systems instead of having a single pipeline for talent. The result is a shortage of qualified personnel at U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), which has responsibility for both the offensive and defensive aspects of military cyber operations." #cybersecurity

There is truth in this article.

Interesting Read.

You are most likely never to see a hospital or law firm headed by someone other than a former lawyer or doctor, but cyber, for some reason, lets anyone lead their units. You might say that great leaders can surround themselves with competent professionals, and their leadership skills will prevail. But history has told a different story, with countless Government breaches and billions of dollars spent on ineffective or duplicative software. How does this affect things? Well, most cyber PM shops are transitory, where civilians and officers come to finish off a career or just sit long enough to get some awards and retire. There is nothing wrong with that, but the chance that someone can come in and recognize dysfunction, ineffectiveness, or, in some cases, even corruption is very small. And then there is the mission; with no relevant cyber or engineering skills or background, how does a leader measure the effectiveness of their OA? Better yet, how do they improve things for the warfighter? Cyber is too important to treat as just an "IT" function. It is the culmination of almost every engineering skill and the ability to break or defend. Our warfighters deserve better.