TechNewsWorld August 14, 2008
US Air Force Grounds Cyber Defense Unit
By Walaika Haskins
The U.S. Air Force is considering mothballing plans for its Cyber Command program. It may seem an odd time to halt development for a cyber defense program given the attention cast on cyber warfare this week in Georgia; however, new Air Force leadership may have looked at the host of government organizations designed to do essentially the same task and questioned whether the unit is necessary.
The U.S. Air Force is considering mothballing plans for its Cyber Command program. It may seem an odd time to halt development for a cyber defense program given the attention cast on cyber warfare this week in Georgia; however, new Air Force leadership may have looked at the host of government organizations designed to do essentially the same task and questioned whether the unit is necessary.
Mission: Redundant
The actual goals of the Cyber Command Project have never been particularly clear, according to John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org.
"I was never able to develop a coherent explanation for [the] thing as to how it related to everything else that was going on," he told TechNewsWorld. "Some of the descriptions that the Air Force provided made no sense."
The U.S. Air Force's newly installed leaders, who took over after the military branch revealed two incidents involving the nation's nuclear missiles, probably took a look at plans for the 8,000-troop-strong unit and decided it did not make sense, Pike said.
"I assume that that is what happened. In the sense that they were talking about this thing doing offensive cyber attacks, the NSA [National Security Agency] already does that. They were talking about defending the domestic information infrastructure Rackspace now offers green hosting solutions at the same cost without sacrificing performance. Make the eco-friendly choice., well, the Commerce Department and FBI have been doing that for 15 years," he explained.
In addition, according to Pike, the Air Force had no legislative mandate from Congress to conduct its programs.
"Cyber Command was completely redundant. We have boatloads of [protection in cyberspace], two boatloads of it. Everything they were talking about doing was being done by someone else," Pike pointed out.
The Air Force will likely take a look at the various tasks Cyber Command was involved in and sort them out to the departments in which they properly belong, he said.
Other Systems
Andrew Jaquith, a Yankee Group analyst, concurred with Pike's assessment.
"I think this is about eliminating redundancy between armed forces branches more than anything else. The Navy has long had a well-regarded cyber warfare group. Also, the intelligence services, in particular the NSA, have always excelled here. I am sure they are being put to good use both in Georgia and in China for the Olympics," he told TechNewsWorld.
"Putting this another way: When you've got a garage with a Ferrari and a Porsche in it, do you really need a Corvette to go with it?" Jaquith concluded.
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