Maj. Gen. William Lord, commander of Air Force Cyber Command (Provisional), last week told attendees at an industry association meeting at Hanscom AFB, Mass., that “it is easier to get approval to do a kinetic strike with a 2,000-pound bomb than it is for us to do a non-kinetic cyber activity.” Currently, he said, “we’re always shooting behind the rabbit” because cyber defense is not yet proactive. He said, “I think that cyber can be the next strategic force of the future,” and to make that happen the service must “operationalize” cyber within the warfighting arsenal. (Lord has been nominated to become the Air Force Chief of Warfighting Integration.) (Hanscom report by Chuck Paone)
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
