Although the Defense Department continues to grow its cyber workforce, the “capacity for training in a realistic environment has not kept pace,” according to the House Armed Services Committee’s intelligence, emerging threats, and capabilities panel’s mark-up of the Fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill. The panel, which noted that it was concerned DOD is not addressing the training needs or coming to a consensus on how to best manage and support those needs, recommended creating an executive agent for DOD cyber training. This position would be a good first step towards better resource management and instilling discipline in cyber testing, states the mark, released April 30. The panel called for a need for “discipline to prevent rampant proliferation of duplicative capabilities,” which an executive agent would be able to oversee. The panel is slated to begin mark-ups Thursday. (See also On Your Mark-Up, Get Set, Go.)
Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Defense Department needs to upgrade its electronic warfare capability and its EW training ranges; just as his predecessor said at his own confirmation hearing.