Information Warfare: USAF Builds A Cyber War Army

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December 10, 2007: The U.S. Air Force is in the process of training 40,000 Cyber Warriors. In addition, all air force recruits will now receive some basic Cyber War training as part of boot camp. Many of the new training courses, are existing ones that have been renamed, or slightly modified. The air force has been deeply involved with electronic warfare for over sixty years, and Internet based operations for over a decade. The new training courses will take from six to 15 months, and it will take over seven years to get the full complement of people trained, and experienced enough, to do what needs to be done.

All these new people will staff the 8th Air Force, also known as the Air Force Cyberspace Command (AFCYBER). The newly established Internet operations organizations will be combined with some of the older electronic warfare ones, which will get the new operation up to speed more quickly.

The air force already has several Internet monitoring and Cyber War operations, which contain a lot of high priced civilian contractors (many of them former air force personnel who went looking for more money and opportunities in the civilian world.) The air force found that the rapidly expanding adoption of the Internet not only caused a lot of their Internet specialists to go over to the commercial side, but forced the air force to pay much more money to get some of these hot shots back.

Thousands of existing air force electronic warfare specialists will be assigned, or offered, jobs in AFCYBER. This will include units operating U2 strategic reconnaissance aircraft, EC-135 electronic-eavesdropping aircraft, EC-130E Commando Solo radio/TV broadcasting aircraft, and the EC-130H Compass Call radio-jamming aircraft. AFCYBER will have over 20,000 personnel, and the air force is recruiting officers and airmen from all over the air force for careers in Cyber War jobs. Not all of the people trained as Cyber Warriors will be in the 8th Air Force. Many will be assigned throughout the air force, to take care of Cyber War needs of their units.

 

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