The latest issue of the Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center's IANewsletter features "Army, Navy, Air Force, and Cyber -- Is It Time for a Cyberwarfare Branch of [the] Military?" by COL John "Buck" Surdu and LTC Gregory Conti. I found these excerpts enlightening.
The Army, Navy, and Air Force all maintain cyberwarfare components, but these organizations exist as ill-fitting appendages that attempt to operate in inhospitable cultures where technical expertise is not recognized, cultivated, or completely understood. The services have developed effective systems to build traditional leadership and management skills. They are quite good at creating the best infantrymen, pilots, ship captains, tank commanders, and artillerymen, but they do little to recognize and develop technical expertise. As a result, the Army, Navy, and Air Force hemorrhage technical talent, leaving the Nation’s military forces and our country under-prepared for both the ongoing cyber cold war and the likelihood of major cyberwarfare in the future...
The skill sets required to wage cyberwar in this complex and ill-defined environment are distinct from waging kinetic war. Both the kinetic and non-kinetic are essential components of modern warfare, but the status quo of integrating small cyberwarfare units directly into the existing components of the armed forces is insufficient...
The cultures of today’s military services are fundamentally incompatible with the culture required to conduct cyberwarfare... The Army, Navy, and Air Force are run by their combat arms officers, ship captains, and pilots, respectively. Understandably, each service selects leaders who excel at conducting land, sea, and air battles and campaigns. A deep understanding and respect for cyberwarfare by these leaders is uncommon.
To understand the culture clash evident in today’s existing militaries, it is useful to examine what these services hold dear -- skills such as marksmanship, physical strength, and the ability to jump out of airplanes and lead combat units under enemy fire. Accolades are heaped upon those who excel in these areas. Unfortunately, these skills are irrelevant in cyberwarfare...
The culture of each service is evident in its uniforms. Consider the awards, decorations, badges, patches, tabs, and other accoutrements authorized for wear by each service. Absent is recognition for technical expertise. Echoes of this ethos are also found in disadvantaged assignments, promotions, school selection, and career progression for those who pursue cyberwarfare expertise, positions, and accomplishments...
Evidence to back these assertions is easy to find. From a recent service academy graduate who desired more than anything to become part of a cyberwarfare unit but was given no other option than to leave the service after his initial commitment, to the placement of a service’s top wireless security expert in an unrelated assignment in the middle of nowhere, to the PhD whose mission was to prepare PowerPoint slides for a flag officer -- tales of skill mismanagement abound...
[W]e are arguing that these cultures inhibit (and in some cases punish) the development of the technical expertise needed for this new warfare domain.... Only by understanding the culture of the technical workforce can a cyberwarfare organization hope to succeed... High-and-tight haircuts, morning physical training runs, rigorously enforced recycling programs, unit bake sales, and second-class citizen status are unlikely to attract and retain the best and brightest people.
I agree with almost all of this article. When I left the Air Force in early 2001, I was the 31st of the last 32 eligible company grade officers in the Air Force Information Warfare Center to separate from the Air Force rather than take a new nontechnical assignment. The only exception was a peer who managed to grab a job at NSA. The other 31 all left to take technical jobs in industry because we didn't want to become protocol officers in Guam or logitisics officers in a headquarters unit.
Please read the whole article before commenting, if you choose to do so. I selected only a few points but there are others.
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