Congress Should Establish New Military Cyber Force: Report

The U.S. military needs an independent military cyber service, alongside the Air Force, Army, Coast Guards, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force, according to a report from a Washington-based research institute.

“China has already centralized its cyber, space, electronic warfare, and psychological warfare capabilities within its Strategic Support Force,” the report continues. “Russia is actively leveraging cyber operations both on the battlefield and to threaten U.S. critical infrastructure and interfere in American politics.”

In the face of growing cyber threats posed by U.S. adversaries, the report warns that the United States “has a limited window of opportunity to reorganize, allocate resources, and develop sustainable cyber force readiness.”

The report was co-authored by retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who is senior director of FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, and Erica Lonergan, an assistant professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. The two authors interviewed more than 75 anonymous active-duty and retired U.S. military officers with significant leadership and command experience in the cyber field.

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“America’s cyber force generation system is clearly broken,” the report says, pointing to problems such as inefficient division of labor and lack of cooperation among current military services, poor recruitment, lack of promotion opportunities, and low retention rates for qualified personnel.

“Fixing it demands nothing less than the establishment of an independent cyber service,” according to the report.  “The inefficient division of labor between the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps prevents the generation of a cyber force ready to carry out its mission. Recruitment suffers because cyber operations are not a top priority for any of the services,” the report adds.

One unnamed lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Marine Corps. explained his career decisions to the report’s authors. “I can’t speak for the other services, but I perceive a lack of career progression for cyber officers in the Marine Corps,” the colonel said. “I commanded a Combat Mission Team and am fully qualified to join the cyber field but decided not to apply for the specialty because of the limited command opportunities.”

The report recommends that Congress establish a Cyber Force branch, with an initial staff level of 10,000 and a $16.5 billion budget. The proposed branch would be located within the Department of the Army, the report added.

While a portion of the staff with the new Cyber Force would come from other services, the authors noted that doing so should not “strain the resources of any one service.” The other services would still be responsible for tasks such as training their personnel on defensive cyberspace operations, according to the report.

“The creation of a Cyber Force, however, would preclude service-retained personnel from conducting offensive cyberspace operations,” the report adds.

“If done properly, the overall readiness of the military’s cyber forces should not suffer during a transition to an independent Cyber Force,” the report states. “Instead, cyber forces would gain more operational focus and direction while consolidating acquisition processes and maximizing budgetary effectiveness.”