The Air Force will establish three new Total Force cyber units this year, said Secretary Michael Donley at AFA’s CyberFutures Conference outside of Washington, D.C. This includes an Air National Guard information operations squadron in Washington state, another one in California, and then one Air Force Reserve Command unit that will form an association with the 33rd Network Warfare Squadron at Lackland AFB, Tex., a part of Joint Base San Antonio. In addition, the Air Force plans to expand the Maryland ANG’s 175th NWS, he said during his March 23 address. “We’ve made considerable progress in being able to meet the threats and challenges of cyberspace by fielding a Total Force of over 45,000 trained and certified professionals, equipped to ensure the continuity of operations in cyberspace,” said Donley.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…