USAF Cyber Command

There’s an emerging technology trend in the U.S. Air Force. On November 2, 2006, Secretary of the Air Force, Michael W. Wynne announced the establishment of a new command devoted to “preserving the freedom of access and commerce, in … cyberspace.” The creation of the Air Force Cyber Command is an indication of the evolving warfare landscape.

Secretary Wynn makes a point of saying that he considers cyberspace to be an actual “battle domain”, on par with land, sea, air and space. As such, cyberspace becomes a location, a battlefield. Previously, cyberspace was simply considered a component of the function of telecommunication. The significance of this revelation is the recognition of the importance of cyberspace to our national security, and our country’s commitment to its defense.

The importance of this event to emerging technologies is the tremendous opportunity for innovation. The area of military research has given the world the technologies of nuclear weapons, stealth, electronic countermeasures and recently, to the benefit of many outside the military, geosynchronous positioning. Our enemies already use information technology to their advantage, and are essentially unopposed in any organized fashion. The Secretary illustrates this point with several examples, such as,

“Right now a Finance Technician is moving U.S. dollars via a laptop to support terrorist ops, while sipping coffee in an Internet café. His use of cyberspace is practically uncontested.”

It’s evident the cyberspace domain provides an excellent operational platform for criminals, terrorists and all manner of evil determined to harm Americans and America. In the next few years, expect the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense to develop offensive and defensive cyber-weapon technology to combat these rogue forces and protect the homeland. However, we may not be reading about their breakthroughs for some time to come.