Air Force unveils 10-year cyber warfare plan
In tandem with creating a new information warfare command, the Air Force released a new strategy to address digital warfare over the next decade.
Lt. Gen. Veralinn Jamieson talks cyber strategy at the Air Force Association's Air Space Cyber conference on Sept. 18. (Photo credit: Staff Sgt. Chad Trujillo)
The Air Force released an overview of its 10-year "Cyber Warfare Flight Plan" Sept. 18, which attempts to fuse all of the best parts of electronic, cyber, and information operations.
That's how Lt. Gen. Veralinn Jamieson, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Cyber Effects Operations, described it.
"The mathematical equation for information warfare, IW: I have ISR, plus cyber warfare, plus electronic warfare, plus information operations, equals information warfare," she told reporters at the Air Force Association's Air Space Cyber conference in National Harbor, Md. Sept. 18 just a few hours after announcing the strategy.
The unclassified strategy overview highlights building up talent and fielding "agile, scalable, modular cyber warfare training" as the foundational component. In addition to increasing offensive and defensive cyber operations capabilities, the plan also indicates developing "enterprise HF architecture"to modernize warfighter needs.
The plan also emphasizes the need for an Air Force reinforcing global communications, data strategy as well as open architecture infrastructure and platforms to improve data flow and analysis -- something Air Force acquisition head Will Roper previously stressed.
Jamieson said the strategy was developed after discussions with the Army and Navy and aims to "really understand this non-kinetic capability whether it be sensing, whether it be waveforms -- how do I control this electromagnetic spectrum. Is it ones and zeros, is it pamphlets or strategic messaging?"
The strategy comes in tandem with news of the Air Force announcing more details on the coming information warfare command, to be called the 16th Air Force, which will operationalizing the strategy.