The Air Force is undertaking a comprehensive study of the shape and demands of its cyber mission through 2025, said Air Force Chief Scientist Mark Maybury. “The entire Air Force is engaged in this, this is not only a science and technology vision, this is also going to encompass what we call mission support, which includes acquisitions, accessions, policy, perhaps even doctrine,” Maybury told attendees of AFA’s CyberFutures Conference in National Harbor, Md., on March 23. Cyber Vision 2025 will incorporate input from industry and academia in addition to the Air Force’s collaboration with other government partners, he said. Given limited defense budgets, the study will outline areas in which the Air Force must lead, areas where it can simply augment agencies and the private sector, and areas where it will follow, said Maybury. Since technology is constantly changing “even as we’re doing the study,” Cyber Vision 2025 aims to identify “persistent principles” of the domain, he explained. Technical elements change, but there are “things that will be no different in 10 or 20 years,” he noted. An initial report is due to the Air Force leadership in July, after which the service will release an unclassified version of the study, said Maybury.
In the wake of a major Chinese military shakeup, the head of U.S. Space Command warned of China’s “breathtakingly fast” advances in space during visits to Japan and South Korea. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s trip to the Indo-Pacific is his first overseas visit since taking command of SPACECOM in January.