Cyber Flag Tests Airmen’s Network Mettle

Members of 24th Air Force, the Air Force’s cyber operations arm, participated with cyber professionals from across the Defense Department in the second annual Cyber Flag 13-1 training exercise at Nellis AFB, Nev. “Our increasing dependency on reliable and efficient network connectivity and the growing threat posed by cyber adversaries highlight the importance of practicing combined operations in defense of the DOD information infrastructure,” said Capt. Christian Mapp, 24th AF exercise branch chief, in a Nov. 21 release from JBSA-Lackland Tex., site of the numbered air force’s headquarters. US Cyber Command designed Cyber Flag to hone DOD personnel’s cyber skills against a realistic adversary in a tactical virtual environment. For the exercise, which ran from Oct. 29 to Nov. 9, the Air Force assembled a team of more than 70 Active Duty airmen, Air National Guardsmen, and Air Force Reservists from across the nation, according to the release. Overall, there were some 700 participants. The exercise included an opposing force whose mission was to penetrate and disrupt the computer networks of the friendly side. (Lackland report by TSgt. Scott McNabb)