Although the Defense Department continues to grow its cyber workforce, the “capacity for training in a realistic environment has not kept pace,” according to the House Armed Services Committee’s intelligence, emerging threats, and capabilities panel’s mark-up of the Fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill. The panel, which noted that it was concerned DOD is not addressing the training needs or coming to a consensus on how to best manage and support those needs, recommended creating an executive agent for DOD cyber training. This position would be a good first step towards better resource management and instilling discipline in cyber testing, states the mark, released April 30. The panel called for a need for “discipline to prevent rampant proliferation of duplicative capabilities,” which an executive agent would be able to oversee. The panel is slated to begin mark-ups Thursday. (See also On Your Mark-Up, Get Set, Go.)
The Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is behind schedule and may significantly overrun its expected cost, which could partially explain why the service is reviving the hypersonic AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid-Response Weapon.