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Cyber Command HQ Fight Ramps Up

By Colin Clark Monday, October 20th, 2008 1:23 pm
Posted in Air

The battle to win the headquarters for the Air Force’s Cyber Command should be boisterous and hard-fought. It will bring military jobs with a pretty bright future and desirable high-tech companies will probably cluster around the new command. The people doing those jobs will be well paid, just the kind of jobs a community wants to attract.

The folks at Aviation Week’s have an update, which I’ve excerpted below.
A nod to Bettina H. Chavanne, who wrote the Oct. 17 story.

“The list of possible headquarter bases for the U.S. Air Force Cyber Command will be winnowed down and evaluated more closely over the next three to four months, according to Maj. Gen. William Lord, chief of the provisional command.

There is fierce competition to provide a home for the planned Cyber Command. A list of 56 bases is being reviewed by the Pentagon, Lord told Aerospace DAILY. In March, then-USAF Secretary Michael Wynne responded to 18 states’ governors interested in hosting the new command to join in the basing process. Requests for information were sent out in May and responses were due back by July 1.

Cyber Command has been in suspended animation ever since the turnover of top Air Force leadership this past summer. “My tasking is to come back with a roadmap that defines [Cyber],” Lord said. Although priority is still being given to issues dealing with better management of the service’s so-called nuclear enterprise, Lord said a decision was made to stand up the command.

Lord is confident that Cyber Command’s designation as a so-called Numbered Air Force (NAF), the 24th under the USAF Space Command, is the best decision. “That’s the way we fight today,” he said. “It’s not important which major command it falls under because the [capability is available] to all of the Combatant Commanders (COCOMS).” For example, he said, Air Combat Command organizes, trains and equips air-breathing assets, which are used by U.S. units in Europe and the Pacific for the commanders in those regions. “In the case of Cyber, you don’t have hard assets,” Lord said. “Network warfare is more distributed.”

SNIP

We’ll try and bring you some of the political shenanigans as the Air Force gets closer to an actual selection.

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	Anna October 20th, 2008 at 4:27 pm Just wanted to comment that Ms. Chavanne’s story is not accurate. AFCYBER is not going to be a Major Command any longer. The Air Force came out with a decision last week to make it a Numbered Air Force under U.S. Space Command instead, which is much smaller than a Major Command. It also doesn’t require as extensive a basing process, so there isn’t likely to be a big battle over where it will be located. Perhaps Aviation Week should check their facts…
	Cold Warrior October 21st, 2008 at 7:04 am Agreed. What a mess of an outdated article. How dare the Cybergeeks use the hallowed SAC crest for their logo!
	Radarnav October 21st, 2008 at 7:29 am Colin & Anna, The USAF made a decision to make the AFCYBER a Numbered Air Force (I believe 24 AF) under Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), not US Space Command. So, the headquarters for the AFCYBER mission will be in Colorado Springs, CO. The only questions remaining is where the NAF HQ will be, how many people will be assigned to HQ AFSPC to support this mission, and the exact units to be assigned to the NAF. At the same time, the USAF decided to create a MAJCOM that would focus on its Nuclear deterrence mission. That new command (Name and HQ Location TBD) will be comprised of B-52s, B-2s, and the ICBMS (20AF) from AFSPC.
	WRyker October 21st, 2008 at 9:37 am I believe it will end up at STRATCOM for both political reasons and because of its strategic objectives.
	Gray Eagle October 21st, 2008 at 6:35 pm Since they have adopted the SAC logo, perhaps they also should adopt SAC’s time-honored Motto: “Peace Is Our Profession.”
	Cold Warrior October 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 am What exactly does Space Command have to do with CyberOps?
	Gray Eagle October 22nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm Having served on the Air Staff, I learned long ago that both the virtual (org chart) and physical placement of a Numbered Air Force or a Major Air Command could be driven by Congressional “input.”