Cyber Synergy

There’s talk of creating a new sub-command within US Strategic Command to oversee the operations of the military’s unclassified and secure computer networks, Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, STRATCOM’s command, confirmed to defense reporters Thursday in Washington, D.C. This new organization would combine the military’s cyber-defense and cyber-attack missions under one roof, yielding important synergies, Chilton said. While there have been no decisions made yet by the Defense Department leadership to create the new organization, STRATCOM is exploring the idea internally and it makes sense, he said. “You always, in any domain, want to bring those two elements together so that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing and they are closely synchronized in any operations,” he said. Essentially, STRATOCM is looking at combining the functions of its joint task for global network operations and its joint functional component command for network warfare under a single commander. As a potential first step in this direction, JTF-GNO was placed under the operational control of the JFCC-NW last fall, Chilton said. Under BRAC, the JTF-GNO is moving from Arlington, Va., to Ft. Meade, Md., already home to the JFCC-NW. This means that Ft. Meade is probably where the new organization would be headquartered, he said. (Read Air Force Magazine’s The Cyber Menace)