Just like the Navy must protect sea lanes for waterborne commerce, a military cyber organization must protect commerce that travels through Cyber Space, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, head of 8th Air Force. Elder, who oversaw the efforts to start up the recently activated Cyber Command, noted that 80 percent of world commerce today is conducted in cyberspace. He emphasized that “cyber is a domain,” a place with terrain, obstacles, and innocent bystanders as well as enemies. The Air Force has to dominate cyber space, he said, because “if we lose cyber, we can’t do air and space.”
A new White House policy calls for the Pentagon to craft plans for additional space launch facilities to support a projected increase in launch demand that could see the U.S. supporting as many as 1,000 launches by 2030, more than a fivefold increase from 2025.