Cyber War—the Epitome of Irregular Warfare

Irregular warfare might be the 21st century norm for the United States, and cyber warfare might represent the epitome in irregular war, Gen. Bob Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, said Friday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium. “We are going to have to counter irregular warfare in space and cyberspace,” he said, and cyberspace codifies many of the tenets of irregular war the nation is seeing in the air and land war domains. There is an unpredictable and constantly changing threat, Kehler said, and you never know what the enemy looks like—or whether he is down the street or across the world. The enemy in cyberspace is smart, adaptive, and the US has “got to get better at cyber defense,” he said. AFSPC is in the process of standing up 24th Air Force, the numbered air force that will be responsible for the service’s cyber war operations.