Predicting, Depicting Effects of Cyber Weapons

To understand the needs in future combat, the Air Force can’t go it alone, said Maj. Gen. VeraLinn Jamieson, Air Combat Command’s intelligence director. There is a coming avalanche of big data, with new fifth generation aircraft collecting intel, along with the development of new space assets, and a better understanding of cyber war. “Not everyone understands the absolute crush of data that is heading our way with the new system of systems,” Jamieson said during a Thursday Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. The Air Force needs help from industry and academia to understand the use of the combat cloud and open architecture systems, advances in electro-magnetic spectrum, and how to interoperate with coalition partners. “We have learned and matured in our thought and in our experience in fighting for the past 15 years. We’ve got to share this and we’ve got to have an open dialogue,” she said. ACC has started working with academia to develop a mathematical algorithm “to predict and depict the effects of cyber weapons.” RAND Corp also has completed a one-year study evaluating six cases, four of traditional cyber attacks and two of electronic warfare attacks. “We believe we have the start of an algorithm that will actually be able to look at being able to predict the effects of cyber capabilities,” Jamieson said. The ability to evolve will be integral. By 2030, competitors will have technological advances beyond the capabilities of the US, but the US military will not lose its technological edge because of its ability to “creatively com?e up with a way to out think,” she added.