While the United States has made it clear that it possesses offensive cyber capabilities to retaliate against cyber attacks, NATO “is not there” yet, said Hans Binnendijk, SAIS senior fellow, at AFA’s 2013 Air and Space Conference on Tuesday. The alliance is still “thinking about defense,” he said. Though the alliance is focusing heavily on cyber threats, cyber attacks would probably not invoke NATO’s collective defense clause, he said. However, “much of it depends on the nature of the cyber attack,” said Binnendijk.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.