By 2025, Mark Maybury, the Air Force’s chief scientist, hopes to see a cyber elite amongst airmen. He previewed Cyber Vision 2025, the Air Force’s long-range strategy to maintain cyber superiority, at an AFA-sponsored Air Force breakfast program speech on July 17 in Arlington, Va. The service’s cyber vision is a bold, challenging, and essential objective, and will require the Air Force to recruit young talent, said Maybury. “Passion about any subject is as important as innate talent,” he said. “It’s not sufficient, but it’s important.” He added that young people can be excited about the Air Force’s vision, citing AFA’s successful CyberPatriot program. In the United States, math scores are declining as cyber expertise becomes increasingly important. “We have not found a mission today that is not dependent on cyber,” he said. “That’s an important statement.” International trends in education have weighty implications for America’s economy and future security, he said. By 2025, Chinese universities will produce more than twice as many doctoral students as American universities, said Maybury.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.