Cyber Effects in the MDO Environment, 2019 Air Space & Cyber Conference, Panel at the at 2019 Air, Space & Cyber Conference
Moderator: Lt. Gen. Fogarty (ARCYBER/CC)
Participants: Lt. Gen. Dash Jamieson (HAF A2/6),
Brig. Gen. David Gaedecke (Dir, Cyberspace Ops & Warfighter Comm, A2/6),
Maj. Gen. Mary O’Brien (25AF/CC),
Maj. Gen. Tim Haugh (CNMF/CC),
Mr. David Brumley (ForAllSecure).
Transcript
[Announcer] Brigadier General, Bernie Scotch. (inspirational music) (crowd applauding)
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome back from lunch, we hope you’ve engaged with our exhibitors downstairs. The topic of this session is cyber effects in the multi-domain environment. And I don’t think there’s been a presentation made at this conference over the last couple of days that hasn’t mentioned the significant implications of the cyber world. And, particularly, how they apply in a multi-domain environment. We have a brilliant cast of panelists today, let me introduce them. First, is Lieutenant General Dash Jamieson, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Cyber Effects Operations. (crowd applauding) We also welcome Brigadier General Bradley Pyburn, Director of Cyberspace Operations and Warfighter Communications. (crowd applauding) We’re also pleased to welcome Major General Tim Haake, Commander, 25th Air Force. (crowd applauding) And finally, Dr. David Brumley, CEO of ForAllSecure. Welcome, Doctor. (crowd applauding) General Jamieson, the floor is yours, ma’am.
Thank you very much. I just gotta start by saying, I don’t know about you all, but I get fired up when the Vice starts talking and I absolutely am truly motivated by the example that he talked about, about empowering our Airmen. And I gotta tell ya, in my opinion, as the new Air Force A-2-6 where we re-branded the six to talk about cyber effects operations, it has been an amazing year to be in the cyber workforce, to operate in the cyber domain, and to execute cyber operations and cyber weapons. I just want to start by saying a few words about this phenomenal year. And I’m so thankful to AFA for actually saying this year’s symposium is Air, Space, and Cyber. And I’m just gonna say dominance in all three domains. (crowd applauding) let’s have a shout-out for that. (crowd applauding) The only critique that I do have is for those of us who believe we’re six feet tall, but maybe we’re really not. And my feet don’t really reach the bar. I’m just gonna stand and talk.
[Bernie] If I’d known, I would’ve brought a hacksaw and we would of fixed it on the spot, General.
(laughing) But what an opportunity, to actually have a cyber panel here at AFA. Because it truly has been an amazing year. While you all know, it does bear repeating that the Chief, when he re-organized the headquarters staff and created a separate five from the eight so we could get to strategy and then we could do our PPVE budgeting separate, our programming separate from our strategic plan, what an outstanding opportunity. And then we stood up AFWIC to actually do concept development through fielding to the force. He also mentioned that we combined ISR and Cyber Effects operations into one organization, and we had the A-2-6 merger. And I will tell you, in the 202 days that I have had that distinct privilege and honor to be in charge of the two enterprises, with three main pillars, it has been nothing short of amazing. And it is amazing because of the Airmen, whether they wear blue suits, OCPs, or civilian wear, have been truly spectacular. And some of the things that we have been able to accomplish in just 202 days… We started with a merger, up at headquarters. And we swiftly went into how do we integrate? They’re two very different and distinct things. And it was mainly because of our operational focus and our culture for warfighting that our enterprises could come together and look about where do we really need to knuckle down. And, where do we need to first look at integration. And the first thing we did was take our career field managers, and they are literally all sitting together, working together, and under one director. And as a result of that, in July, we were able to put out our first 17-X talent management framework. I’m really proud of what the team was able to accomplish. Because, unlike career development, the headquarters looks at talent management. And we did away with the pyramid and we came up with, because the field had multiple working groups to give us information and feedback, we came up with a spectrum. A spectrum of opportunities. Whether it be for what we have now coined, as our two career fields for our officers, 17-Ss, which are offensive or defensive cyber operators, or our expeditionary warfighting comms and comm maintenance and combat comm that are our 17-Xs. And we have at least 10 different examples. There are hundreds of how you can develop, receive training, and chart your own path. Because every Airman deserves the ability and right to define success for them. Following up on publishing the framework, we actually went into action. And as we speak, by the end of the month, for our officer core, for all of our cyber warfare officers, they are actually inputting their experience, their training, and their desire to become either a 17-S or a 17-X. Because we have got to empower that workforce. We are then starting to establish our working groups for our civilians and our enlisted to get at the same things and look at how do we define and chart a spectrum of paths for them to develop success. But we didn’t just stop there, we also really have been working with our leadership and listening, as the Chief likes to say, we’ve been squinting with our ears, listening to what the field has said. And yesterday when the Chief talked about multi-domain operations, and on Monday when Dr. Roper talked about his three hashtags, whether it be hashtag deft Air Force, and, okay, I did appreciate the definition. ‘Cause I thought, he said “deaf Air Force?” No, he said go fast, go smooth, and go smart. I was like, okay, now I get that one. Digital, we all understand that, and disruptive. We’re integrating our capabilities to ensure that our acquisition arm understands what it is cyber brings to the table. We are faster and smarter. We are about disruptive technologies. We are about skillsets, training, and tool sets in the digital age. I thought that was fantastic. And then we had Preston Dunlap who talked about MDC, too. And we all know, by the depiction that the Chief put up, on MDO, multi-domain operations, a collaborative sensing grid cannot happen without resilient global communications. It also cannot happen without our ability to project power from our cyber platform, to defend power projection with our mission defense teams and our defense mechanisms. And it also cannot take place without the ability to, what we like to say, is move, pull the keyboard, and communicate to one another to make sure that our situational awareness, our battlefield assessments, at the tactical edge, all the way back, actually is able to happen. And we were able to conduct all that because, for the last six months, working closely with all the MAJCOMs, and in particular, ACC, with General Holmes at the helm. We are looking to integrate two numbered air forces together here shortly. To take what we have in our ISR, NAF, what we have our Cyber NAF, and look at how can we integrate to make sure that we have extremely lethal and ready forces. Not just to see and identify where the adversary is, but as the Chief said, how do we actually move at the speed of cyber to get inside of the adversary’s decision cycle. And it takes both those enterprises, of both ISR and Cyber, for offensive defensive and warfighting comms to actually get that done. And then finally, we have been working very, very diligently and very hard, coordinating with a lot, and I’m proud to say, because of the outstanding teamwork General Pyburn is gonna talk about because he really lead the effort with some extremely talented cyber operators, not just on our staff, but also from our Cyber Command and our MAJCOMs. I’m proud to say the Secretary of the Air Force, Donovan and Chief Goldfein have actually signed the Air Force Cyber Warfare Plan, our flight plan, that charts out the next 10 years of where we’re gonna go and what we’re going to, hopefully, innovate and inspire and actually turn to fielding. As we talked about yesterday, flight plans and strategies are really about prioritization and effectively looking at where are putting our money where our mouth is in resourcing. We actually have a signed plan that says let’s talk about it up front, let’s invest in our people, let’s invest in our training, let’s invest in our capabilities. And with that, I’m gonna turn it over to Master 17-S that I’m fortunate to have on my team, Brad Pyburn. While in the program, it has Trout Gaedecke. What has happened, for those of you who aren’t tracking, is Trout Gaedecke moved on to be in charge of our electronic warfare enterprise in our A-5 and we were so fortunate the Vice Chief gave us his top exec, and our elite cyber warrior, Brad Pyburn. Please, take it away, Brad. No pressure. (crowd applauding)
You may not wanna clap yet, you haven’t heard me speak. And I can see Trout Gaedecke sitting right there, so what that means, ma’am, is when I get a tough question I’m just gonna phone a friend because I can see him, I have a visual. AFA and General Scotch, thanks for the opportunity to speak today. I think it would be helpful, just very quickly, let me explain a little about what I think my job entails and I wanna talk a little bit about our cyber warfare flight plan that General Jamieson was just talkin’ about. My duty title is Director of Cyberspace Operations and Warfighter Communications. And that’s very important because, as General Jamieson talked about, the career field activity in cyberwarfare officers, those are the two major categories of officers that we’re gonna deliberately develop to be able to fight and win in the future. And so Cyberspace Operations, cyber affects operations. Defensive and offensive maneuver. Our ability to project, power in and through cyberspace and defend our power projection platforms for freedom of maneuver. That’s what offensive and defensive cyberspace operations is really about. And Warfighter Communications, it’s something that for a long time I think we’ve taken for granted. That when you hit the button and you need to communicate, it’s just gonna be there. And we’ve been in a persistent or a fairly permissive, I should say, environment for the last few decades. As we heard this morning from the SecDef, great competition is back. We have adversaries that have watched, and planned, and are ready to take away these critical capabilities that we rely on. And so when you hear Genearal Kumashiro and Mr. Dunlap talk about the collaborative sensing grid and this critical capability for future warfighting, warfighting communications really are the building blocks of that vision, and our teams are gonna be working very closely together as we move forward to make sure we can deliver that to Warfighter. Okay, cyber warfare flight plan. So, as the Vice Chief’s Exec, I got to attend the last Corona and hear the chief talk about what his vision was. There was a contested logistics exercise, and there was much discussion over our ability to maneuver, and to move, and how important cyber capabilities are gonna be in that fight. And some things that he talked about is what is our ability, like I said earlier, to defend our capabilities, and then project power forward. And you’ve also heard the Chief talk about openin’ a base, and receiving forces, and fighting the base, and being able to see, too, and then present and push power forward to win the fight. You don’t do that without effective command and control with a tactical edge. And so as we think through that, what’s the real essence of this cyber warfare flight plan? It is really, to do those things I just talked about, our North Stars, we have to be able to defend our power projection. If you remember the Chief’s slide, 20 30, there’s a lot of capabilities and he talked about the highway. We have to make sure that highway is there when we need it, and we defend it from adversary activity. And then we have to be able to project power in and through cyber, and to increase the survivability and the lethality of our warfighting capabilities and our operators. Very important. And then, finally, being able to communicate in a contested, degraded environment. That’s what we’re tryin’ to achieve with the flight plan. How are we gonna do that? Well, as the Chief says, if you’re gonna get something done, the Chief’s big three items: you gotta have somebody that has a rose pinned on ’em, you have to have a plan with a schedule, and you have to have accountability to deliver outcomes. That’s what the flight plan is all about. And I would just give ya this, and I look forward to your questions, we really are doin’ it through seven particular activities, as described in annexes. It all starts with human capital. We have to be able to recruit, retain, and develop talent in this battle space. And I look forward to a conversation on that, because it’s tough. And we acknowledge. Chief Wright talked about it this morning. That, in cyber, we can’t compete on dollars alone. What we have to compete on is mission, and opportunity, and a calling to something larger than ourselves. So, human capital is very important. It all starts with our people, our most critical warfighting system. Then I would say it goes to ISR, because intel is going to drive and underpin every operation that we take. And how do we get intelligence from cyber that informs multi-domain operations? And then how do we generate intelligence that will inform cyberspace operations as we look to whole adversary capabilities at risk. Then we’re gonna talk about defensive maneuver. Defending weapons systems, and mission defense teams, and actually makin’ that real. Defending our capabilities from cyber attack and cyber threats. Another area we’re going to explore is opportunities for the Air Component Commander. We’re gonna build on the momentum that we have with US Cyber Command and the capabilities and the operators that we’ve presented. But we want to be able to turn to the Air Component Commander, through our new integrated NAF, and look at those opportunities. What kind of capabilities, what kind of training, what kind of concepts do we need to have to make that real for our Air Force. Warfighting Communications, you’ve heard me talk about that. How do we actually get to the business of building a global, resilient C-2 grid that actually enables warfighting? And then there’s two additional pieces that are very critical, that underpin all this. The first is emerging and disruptive technology. The technology we have today is not gonna be the technology we have next week, or next month, or tomorrow. And we have to be agile, and we have to move quickly. And, again, you heard Dr. Roper talk about that earlier this week. And then, finally, it’s partnerships. And when I say partnerships, don’t just think inner-agency, don’t just think academia and industry. It is all that, but there’s also partnerships even within the Air Force we have to foster, and develop, and grow to deliver these capabilities. So, again, thanks for allowing me to speak for a few minutes, I look forward to your questions.
All right, Major General Tim Haake, Commander of 25th Air Force. First, thank you to AFA, thank you to General Scotch. Not just for this panel, but also thank you for AFA’s leadership to grow interest in STEM across the country, through high schools, through Cyber Patriot. That is an enabler, and that’s an investment in human capital for our nation. Thanks for everything you’re doing there.
[Bernie] Thank you.
[General Jamieson] That deserves a round of applause. (crowd applauding)
When we set up this panel, originally at that time, I was the Commander of the Cyber National Mission Force. So what I was asked to do today was address both, where we were from US Cyber Command as components and also, to address where we stand today as 25th Air Force in terms of ISR for and from cyber. So, from the US Cyber Com perspective, it’s been a pretty rapid transformation over the last few years, which has been enabled by a change in, first you’ve all heard the discussion of the National Defense Strategy, which expects us to compete, but it expects us to compete in all domains. And, clearly, an area where we’re in constant engagement with our adversaries, and constant contact, is within the cyber domain. So, not only do we have the NDS, but there are a couple of other significant things that has changed the environment for cyberspace operations in enabling multi-domain. One of those was a change in the law in 2019, for the National Defense Authorization Act. That made cyber a domain of traditional military activity. Really began to start pushing the department to look at ways, to also look at the cognitive side of this portion of the conflict. The other was the DOD cyber strategy that set an expectation for engagement with our adversaries within the cyber domain. Cyber National Mission Force is the element within Cyber Command that is responsible for going after the adversary’s hackers, both offense and defense. And what I’ve seen as one of the biggest sets of transformation, in addition to authorities and the policy, has been the talent that is growing within the services. And as a Joint Commander, I gain the great benefit of the work that AF Cyber was doing to present us a force of Airmen, both cyber and ISR, that we could now employ and engage our adversaries in different ways than we have ever done in the past. So, able to take questions from a CNMF perspective, but we’ve already discussed, pending senate confirmation, we’ll establish a new information warfare NAV. But what General Holmes has already charged 24th and 25th Air Force to do is set the conditions for that. And what we’re seeing as really strong possibilities, as 25th Air Force, as the organization that executes global ISR, as well as electronic warfare and presents those capabilities to all the air components, and executes in support of COCOMs, we’re seeing dots connect across missions, across 25th and 24th that are going to enable intelligence to support cyber operations and generate new possibilities, both in the cyber domain, but also cognitively, as well as what can we do within the cyber domain to now inform decisions in all the other domains to produce outcomes. So there’s a lot of opportunity space, and we’ll welcome any questions on that.
I guess I’m the oddball. So, my name’s David Brumley. I’m a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. I’m also CEO of a startup called ForAllSecure. And the thing that really drew me to this panel is this idea that I think the job of academia, and also startups, is to help support everyone in their mission here. So, everyone has talked about the workforce development problem. Thank you for recognizing it. It’s actually hard everywhere, it’s not just in the Air Force. And one of the problems that we have is when you look at young men and young women, people in high school, they still don’t necessarily know cyber is a career field. And so things like Cyber Patriot, at CMU we were on picoCTF, things that expose them to this career field are the first big step. ‘Cause if you don’t know it exists, you can’t do it. I think the second component is to grow new original research. And so a lot of the research, when you look at things like AI, or machine learning, or all these hot topics, it’s really to me about autonomy. We know that cyber moves fast. And having someone walk a piece of paper from one division to another is just a recipe for a disaster until news. We have to make those sort of quick decisions and be able to act on ’em at internet or cyber speeds. And so, in 2016, DARPA shined a light on this with their cyber Grand Challenge. It was like the self-driving car of computer security. And through organizations of the DOD, such as DIU, there are starting to be transition of those into the services, including the Air Force. And so that’s the first big thing, not just driving for cyber speed, but saying autonomy is the way to do it. And doing the research development, and not just stopping at that initial prototype, but making it usable for the warfighters, the second thing. I think that the third thing we can do is just offer understanding coming from an academic or an enterprise background. That the mission inside the DOD, and in the Air Force, is especially difficult because you have accountability to every U.S. citizen. I only have accountability to shareholders, or to the Dean in my professor role, much easier than every U.S. citizen. And so I think we need to think about how we can foster that understanding, that working with the DOD is not just good, but also understand their problems so that when we’re designing solutions we can work within those constraints. And not just saying those are artificial, or it’s just a bunch of red tape, but they’re often there for a reason. And understanding that and then working with people to address the root things that we need to address that were articulated by the six stars to my right.
[Bernie] Very good. Well, lady and gentlemen, we’ve got far more questions than we’ll ever get to here, but I’ll direct the first one to you, General Jamieson. And it involves the differences in acquiring major weapons platforms and acquiring cyber systems and cyber services. What do you see as the challenges in building the FYDP, in articulating requirements, and in getting support on Capital Hill for the things our Air Force needs in the cyber domain, particularly as it differs from major weapons platforms.
[General Jamieson] Thank you so much for giving me the kickoff softball question. Really, how are we going to acquire capabilities in the future that are secure from cyber vulnerabilities. And then how are we going to convince the populous, because that’s really who Capitol Hill is representing, that we need to invest in that kind of security? That’s the question I heard.
[Bernie] Sure.
And I think that, in some degrees, the people and Congress are already with us. We have heard about how many times individuals have had their accounts, their bank accounts hacked. How they have had the security, the new security systems in their homes vulnerable to attack. How their children, when they’re on the internet, are very vulnerable to predators. So I think we already have a great understanding with Capitol Hill, and the American people, on why we need cyber security. We just need to be a little more specific and articulate with our industry partners that the vulnerabilities cannot exist. And we have to team, and work this together. We have to come up with protecting the data on our weapons systems, and not just the internal working systems of those weapons systems. Because now, as General Goldfein talked about yesterday, it is all about our software. So if we take a look at the F-35, it isn’t just the platform that’s vulnerable, it’s that fusion engine and all the data that it contains. And we’re working very closely with General Bunch, who’s in Room C right now, having a panel, who would say with their crows office, and with our mission defense teams, that we are looking to standardize our crews, standardize our training, and standardize our tool work, we will be able to rapidly get after the magnitude of this problem. Properly articulate to our corporate process just how vulnerable we are in certain aspects, and maybe not so much in others, as we look to protecting our capabilities. Because unless we protect our power projection platforms, we really don’t have them. So, I look at it like that and I think that once we understand we’ve been doing a cyber review, just like the Navy has done, just like the Army is doing, and we’re about to brief that out here shortly, to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, on our capabilities and how we’re gonna get after ’em. Thank you for the question.
[Bernie] Thank you, ma’am. General Haake, I’ll direct this question to you, and it involves SCADA, Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems. What do you see as the challenges of the nexus as it’s represented right now between us, the Department of Defense, and civil authorities, other law enforcement agencies, intelligence-gathering agencies, how secure do you feel right now that we’re sharing what we should be sharing and that we’ve got the processes in place? Because every system in the Air Force is vulnerable to infrastructure interruptions?
So that’s an area, that is a really good question, and it’s an area that we spend a lot of time in in the Cyber National Mission Force. And it was General Knoxonie’s effort to execute pathfinder projects that would be done between the department and Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy. Because there are a lot of experts that are working these challenges. It’s how we’re able to communicate. And so a couple different things that went on, to start to move that into a place where we could share data. One of those is there is a series of councils that DOE runs. The Department of Defense had traditionally participated in, through our installation side of the DOD. Now we’ve added, to ensure that we’re bringing cyber experts to that and it’s an engagement with all the CEOs across the country, inside the energy sector. Starting to be able to share what we’ve learned from our operations with them, through DOE. The second is that Cyber Command began to expose adversary capabilities, directly to cyber security industry. So, publicly releasing capabilities that they had collected through defensive operations, and other operations, and then passing it to industry. Because really where the power in cyber security is in our nation, is through the private sector, and through the expertise that exists there and also, their global presence. So, by Cyber Command exposing adversary capabilities, it allowed the cyber security industry to more rapidly deploy countermeasures against those. That included the energy sector in specific capabilities that were identified. So that’s a lot of work inside the Air Force, that’s a partnership across a series of organizations that are looking at it from installations, civil engineering, and also it’s certainly an area from a cyber investment perspective.
[Bernie] Thank you. Dr. Brumley, General Jamieson in her opening comments talked briefly about the speed of cyber, and she used the word integrate four times in her opening comments. What do you see as the challenges from the other side of the transom for our friends in industry, and our friends in academe, with respect to what we’re doing right in the Department of Defense, what we might improve on in adapting to this speed of cyber, given our legacy acquisition processes?
Yeah, that’s actually a really good question. So there’s really, speed of cyber means two different things. One is when you’re engaged in combat, how quickly can you react. The second is, as you’re trying to maintain these systems, how quickly can you update when there’s a new vulnerability. And it’s really the second one that talks on acquisition, and that’s often the root of the problems that we have today. I never think, personally, of systems as either secure or insecure. I think about do I operate with speed enough to win. So we engage in mock battles and DEF CON CTF and we win because we’re faster than anyone else at when we’re recognizing a new vulnerability, fielding it. And so I think there’s the technology behind that, things like the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge and Project Voltron to do it, but it also has to change in acquisitions. We have to stop doing waterfall requirements, where it’s like you’re gonna have to follow this particular process. ‘Cause you know what? Next year, people are still gonna think about new cyber vulnerabilities. They’re gonna come up with Row Hammer Meltdown Specter and you’re gonna have to adapt to those. And you can’t wait 20 years to field the next system that adapts to it. So I think one of the big challenges is everyone’s on the same page, but how do we change the process from when something was specified two years ago to what we know today to make sure today actually, not just the DOD’s getting the best, but even the contractor building it. They need line items they can say this is meeting that requirement. So it’s like a whole process that needs to be updated throughout the acquisition.
[Bernie] Thank you. General Pyburn, in your flight plan, which I’m excited to read, I truly am. I’m eager to do that as soon as I can. Talk to us briefly about the human component in there. Particularly, career field mergers, especially in the enlisted track, what do you think the challenges are that you’re gonna confront in executing that flight plan? And, can you talk specifically about plans for future or planned mergers in enlisted career fields, in particular?
Yeah, that’s somethin’ on the enlisted side, it’s somethin’ that we’re takin’ a look at right now. And broadly, and I think it’s been acknowledged, it’s not just the Air Force or DOD, it’s industry, it’s how do we recruit the talent. And we talked about Cyber Patriot, but everyone thinks recruiting is Air Force Recruiting Service, and that happens on a planet far away. Everybody in this room is a recruiter. We’re all recruiters. And when we have a chance to engage at a school, at a community event, and represent the United Sates Air Force and talk about the opportunities that we have in the Department of Defense, and the great mission, and the amazing folks you’re gonna get to work with, the rest of that ought to be about and how we’re gonna develop you as an Airman, as a cyberspace operator, with, as General Jamieson talked about in MBTs, but it’s broader than that. What is our deliberate, specified training path? On the officers’ side, as we talked about, we have cyberspace effects operators, and we have warfighting communicators. And those are two fundamental pieces in our Air Force that are absolutely essential to winning. If you don’t have warfighting communicators that can build, architect, design resilient, capable, global command and control networks, we’re not gonna win. If we don’t have cyberspace operators that can defend our capabilities, and project power, we’re not gonna win. The SecDef said it this morning, the first shot is probably gonna happen in cyberspace and space. So we have to be ready for that. How do we develop that talent, how do we retain that talent? And there’s some initiatives that may be considered, with regards to, I think the Army is takin’ a look at some incentive pay things, and we’re having those conversations. But, not to get ahead of the plan and the team, part of the plan is to have the conversation, as a community, about how do we get to right. How do we retain and develop the talent that we need. So the officers’ side, we have a good path forward, on the enlisted side we’re continuing that evaluation and that conversation. But at the end of the day, we want to recruit, retain, and develop the talent. And, ideally, keep them as long as they’re willing to stay. And something else we have to think through, and this is a broader perspective I would offer, is you may have an Airman, or young officer, that four, eight years into their journey, they make a decision for family reasons or for other reasons, and there’s a great opportunity in industry, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’ve already served their nation. But there’s an opportunity to maybe go into the Reserves, or the Guard, and continue to serve. And wouldn’t it be great if we had a way for folks to come back in? If it was easy. If somebody went to Google or Amazon and did great things, and missed the calling, missed the opportunities in the Air Force, missed being part of this team, wouldn’t it be great if it was just easier for ’em to come back? Those are the kinds of things we have to think about.
[General Jamieson] Yeah, I’m gonna jump in here because we also are lookin’ at things, not just for our specific cyber warfighters, we actually have launched, with the help of A-1 and M-R, our computer language initiative that we were able to get out surveys to our Airmen to say what coding capability do you already possess, and let’s look at evaluating what really is ground truth on are they HTML, or are they really a Python coder? And now we’re taking that to the next step, because we have some of our data, is how we resource, incentivize, train, and equip them to do that. It is not limited just to our cyber operators. We open that up to the entire Air Force. When we took a look at our 17 career field, and we came up with our S and our Delta, we also have a Z. And our Z is a software coder. And it’s not just available for our 17s. We’ve also opened that up to our engineering fields, our 6-X career field, at one, two, three, four. We’re also looking at opening up that to other career fields. Because we have to look at, the digital age is different. Skill sets are different. The Air Force has to be different. And I’m gonna tie-in General Haake on this one, because Cyber Command is actually looking at identifying new and different skill sets, based off of what we’ve learned as we have conducted live operations around the globe. Tim, I’m just gonna throw it to you to kinda highlight how Cyber Comm is really looking at what we thought seven years ago for skill sets is not where we’re at today. And thank God it’s not. We are evolving our tactics, techniques, and procedures, and we’re listening to our warfighting element, or COCOM, on how and what skills they need to actually warfight.
And I think what we’ve really found, in terms of conducting operations, one, we’ve gotta be very flexible in the type of kit that we give to the Force that allows them to adapt really quickly. And when we do, when we empower that Force and we give ’em the opportunity, they’re now able to apply skills and get after our adversary. The areas where we’re seeing more and more, as the catalyst is that partnership between ISR and cyber, is to where that really becomes an area where there’s significant overlap in some of the skills that we need to be able to really understand what an adversary’s doing, rapidly adapt and pursue. That is an area where we can look at some very common things. Many of those come back to the ability to do some scripting, the ability to understand and pull data in, rapidly analyze that data, and then we know that we’re gonna need every element of that force to understand how to handle analytics so that whether you’re on the defensive side, whether you’re looking at it from an offensive perspective, or that you’re operating from a warfighter comm perspective, you gotta really understand what’s happening in the environment. So that will be an area that we’ll see investment. And the very analogous side from an intel professional is if we’re gonna compete in the information environment, then we’re gonna need experts to be able to handle publicly available information and integrate that rapidly into our operations. So those are areas, and I’ll touch on one last thing that I think is also, from our workforce perspective, is we look at that professionals, our Airmen, our NCOs, our officers, and our civilians, we want to employ them. We want them on the battlefield. So one of the challenges that we’ve had is ensuring that we get them all clearances. And so one of the initiatives that General O’Brien started as 25th Air Force Commander, in close partnership with the Air Force Recruiting Service, is to go all the way back to the beginning to make sure that we’re identifying the right talent that’s gonna be clearable. And now, 26% of those Airmen that need security clearances coming out of basic military training, are leaving BMT approved for a clearance. And that’s hard work across our service so that we can take this talent and immediately employ it when it hits our operational force.
I’d like to add just one thing. (crowd applauding) Definitely. I think one thing that I didn’t hear, but one thing that we’ve found effective, and I think I’ve seen this in the Air Force but you didn’t mention it, is cross-training. You can’t do defense unless you understand offense techniques. You can’t do offense if you don’t understand defense techniques. So this idea that hey, you’re a defensive guy only, you’re just gonna get owned all day long because you don’t understand what the attackers are actually doing. And I think there’s been a recognition of this, and it’s starting to build out as part of the curriculum, that you have to cross train across these different roles. That doesn’t mean the defense person is doing an offense mission. It just means he has to be aware of those techniques. And one way to do that is practice them in closed, safe environments. Things like Cyber Patriot do this at the high school level, and then the CNMF has their own setups to do these sort of things as well. So I just wanted to call that out as a really important component.
[Bernie] Thank you all. General Jamieson, you’re a trailblazer, bringing A-2 and A-6 together and making this work. A member of our audience would like to know, do you see this extending to the MAJCOM level? And if so, why, and if not, why not?
I think it already has. ACC with General Holmes is leading the integration of 25th and 24th Air Force. And it’s about how do you execute this integrated capability. I think General Haake is actually highlighted the relationship, the intersection, the synergies of different skill sets, training, and opportunity. You actually have to know patterns of the adversary. You have to know where the adversary is. You have to have insights on the adversary, what ISR brings to the table. And you have to be able to take action to do it. A lot times the difference between what ISR for cyber operations Airmen are doing and what cyber warfare operators are doing really rests in one keystroke. So we have to look at, from an execution standpoint, from what ACC is starting to do, of integrating those NAFs, is actually empowering and emboldening that integration. But I don’t wanna just talk about that. I think we also have touched around, and some of us have mentioned, this is a waypoint. It isn’t just about integrating ISR and cyber operations. We have heard extensively about our contested information, or influence operations, our hybrid warfare, or gray zone operations that our adversary, our competitors are actually conducting every day. We are in a persistent engagement environment today. And we have to integrate ISR, cyber warfare, electronic warfare, and information operations to actually identify and come up with what do we do, what do we mean, how do we train, and what tools are required for information warfare. Because out of all of the domains, today, every day, around the globe, in cyberspace, we are at conflict. We aren’t just in competition, we are in conflict. And the Vice and the Chief talked about our intellectual property is just being ripped off from us. That is conflict. So I look at that and I go, it’s not just about a MAJCOM integrating, it’s about our entire evolution of how are we conducting warfare and where are we going with information warfare for tomorrow. I don’t know, Tim, pending confirmation, you might have some other aspects and then I’d like for Brad to be able to talk about some things that are in the flight plan. Because we have an annex on information warfare in the flight plan.
So, ma’am, I’ll speak from an ISR perspective, in terms of one of the areas that really is gonna build on some of the things that I’ve talked about with what Cyber Command did to expose adversary capabilities. So as we do that, enabling, shining light on malign activity and being then to expose that across the world. What does that look like in an ISR enterprise that’s competing in the information environment? That is, is focused on generating outcomes, in addition to informing commanders at all levels. So is there opportunity for us within our ISR enterprise to expose adversary activity, bring it to the light of day so that now we can show our allies, our partners, what really specifically, China and Russia are doing as malign activity on a more routine basis and enabling that discussion for COCOMs and for air components.
[Bernie] Before I turn it to you, oh, I’m sorry. Go ahead, Brad.
I was just gonna add, so as General Jamieson said, we do talk briefly about this need, to pivot information warfare in the flight plan. And what are the tangible things we can begin to do as an Air Force to build this out and to make it real, to support the new NAF as it integrates and stands up. And there’s some pretty basic building blocks. So we have these individual disciplines that you’ve heard mentioned, of ISR and electronic warfare, cyberspace operations, and information operations. How do we build depth and credibility and capability in each of those disciplines and continue to do that, which is vitally important to the Air Force. But then how do we begin? The magic really is in the integration. And how do we begin to integrate? And how do we do things like what are the training opportunities that we can begin to create and leverage that will build that connective tissue. What are the concepts that we need to develop? Concepts of operations and how might employ capabilities in operators to do the kinds of things General Haake just mentioned. And then, how do we go out and exercise and practice and wargame these concepts and these ideas, and sharpen them and learn from them? That’s really what we’re talkin’ about. That’s what we wanted to have a conversation about. And, if I could, ma’am,
[General Jamieson] Please.
What we would like to do, AFA was very gracious to allow us to have a room, we’re gonna be in Chesapeake J. We’re gonna have three different sessions this afternoon, at 1400, 1500, and 1600, where we invite ya to come, and we’re just gonna have a conversation. We just wanna throw some ideas out there and listen to your thoughts on how we can make this real. Because, at the end of the day, the best ideas are not on this stage. The best ideas are in our junior NCOs, and our young officers, and our young civilians who have these amazing, creative ideas and we wanna listen to you.
It is all about information warfare. And without each and every one of you participating, you might have that one nugget that gets us that integrating piece that we all need to hear. I know, Doctor, you have talked about this when we were chatting earlier. From your side of the house, what do you see about information warfare and where we’re headed? Sorry to ask the question.
[Bernie] No, no.
Well I think integration is the right way. So I don’t think that there is boundaries between, for example, a computer IT system that you use, EW, you need ISR for information to help you be able to see what people are doing and know how they’re gonna react. So I think it makes a lot of sense because when I go look at, at least from the enterprise sector, people aren’t drawing the sort of boundaries that you would typically have in this guy is only defense, or this guy is only ISR. They don’t care, I mean- The job here is not to say you did your job, it’s to win. And really switching to that mindset is important.
[General Jamieson] Awesome.
[Bernie] General Jamieson, gentlemen, the message I heard clearly throughout was let’s roll up our socks and get to work so we’d like to give you some socks that you can roll up.
Yes!
Thank you very much for a brilliant session. (crowd applauding) (inspirational music)