Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) Commander Army Gen. Keith Alexander reiterated plans to raise the combatant command structure over the next year at a congressional hearing on March 12.
“We’re going to need to shift to a unified command,” he said before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
Headquartered at Ft. Meade, Md., CYBERCOM currently operates as a sub-unified combatant command with Strategic Command (STRATCOM). It is responsible for defense of the .mil domain, offensive cyber operations and security of the nation’s networks from advanced threats.
“STRATCOM’s ability to play in this role has gone down,” he said, noting that his counterparts in STRATCOM shared his beliefs.
Changes to the CYBERCOM structure were first publicly discussed in 2012. Alexander put forth several options going forward, including making cyber its own service. Ultimately, he concluded that CYBERCOM should be its own command modeled after an existing command.
“We believe that the SOCOM-like model is where you need to go,” he said.
Like Special Operations Command (SOCOM), Alexander wants to draw soldiers, sailors and airmen from the various services but have training and acquisition oversight.
Several prominent retired commanders, including current head of the Fletcher School at Tufts University Adm. James Stavridis, have supported making cyber its own branch of the military. Stavridis
compared CYBERCOM to the Air Force in 1947 since cyber represents the new domain of warfare–much as the Air Force saw air power when it split from the Army. Alexander said he is not ready to take the comparison that far.
“I think for the current period–for the next several years–that we need to have an integrated cyber capability that goes into the services,” he said. “In places like Iraq, if we were to embed cyber capabilities into the brigade level, which we will need to do…you need to have an embedded, organic capability.”
“The next correct step would be go to a unified–pause–and then see if it makes sense to take a step beyond there,” he said. Taking time for deliberation “makes sure we don’t have to take a step back” if the restructure moves forward too quickly.
Alexander will retire from his post at CYBERCOM this year. The hearing for his replacement, Vice Adm. Mike Rogers, was held on March 11.