Top Defense Department officials are considering a proposal that would allow the U.S. Cyber Command to function as a unified combatant command as the military increases its use of cyberspace as a warfighting domain, Military Times reported Tuesday.
Andrew Tilghman writes Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will make the final decision on whether to elevate the status of Cybercom, which currently operates as a sub-unified command of the U.S. Strategic Command, after he finishes a review of proposed changes to a 1986 DoD reorganization law.
“A combatant command designation would allow us to be faster, which would generate better mission outcomes,” Adm. Michael Rogers, head of Cybercom, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.
Rogers, a 2016 Wash100 recipient, told SASC members that Cybercom works to build up the capacity and capabilities of its cyber mission force while the organization operates at an accelerated pace, Cheryl Pellerin of DoD News reported Tuesday.
The report said the command’s cyber mission force will comprise 68 security teams, 27 combat mission teams, 25 support teams and 13 national mission teams.
Rogers expects the entire force to reach full operational capability by the end of fiscal year 2018.