The Air Force has been granted the authority to use streamlined federal hiring practices in order to fill more than 680 cyber-security positions expeditiously, according to officials with the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph AFB, Tex. This hiring authority, known as Schedule A, is granted in special cases where there is a critical need for speed. It allows hiring officials to bypass traditional competitive procedures. This method will be used to fill slots for specialists in the emerging cyber mission area for US Strategic Command, 24th Air Force (USAF’s new cyber operations arm), and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Among the positions that the Air Force seeks to fill are cyber-risk and strategic analysis; cyber-vulnerability detection and assessment; cyber-incident response; and incident handling and malware/vulnerability analysis. The Air Force may apply Schedule A rules through December 2012. (Randolph report by April Rowden)
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John F. Plumb warned lawmakers that Russia is developing an “indiscriminate” nuclear weapon to go in space, confirming reports from several months ago and describing potentially devastating effects in orbit.