As the Army ramps up the development of its cyber command force, it’s dealing with a number of growing pains including deciding how big this force should actually be.
Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon, U.S. Army Cyber Command’s commander, said in Federal News Radio that the Army can’t predict how large a force it needs primarily due to the rapid pace of technology change. He also said the leaks by former contractor Edward Snowden have also caused the military to rethink insider threat vulnerabilities.
“Let’s get demonstrated capability out there, and then we’re going to find out things we know and don’t know and we can adapt our organizational structure,” he said. “I’m arguing within the Army that the entire cyber force should be re-looked at about once every two years.”
The military is currently building 133 cyber teams focused on offensive cyber operations, defensive cyber operations and operating DoD networks. The Army will contribute 41 teams to that joint effort out of a cadre of soldiers it’s building under the Army Cyber Command, which was established three years ago.
One issue the Army is addressing is the use of the National Guard and Reserve to perform cyber missions. Since many of these reservists work at civilian IT jobs, there is potential to tap their knowledge base for military work.
However, cyber reservists have complained about such things as attending military courses like the warrior leader training for four weeks and falling behind in their technology skills. Cardon suggested that the Army hiring systems should change to bring on board full-time Army civilians.
Cardon proposed the Army needs to better ensure that its highly trained cyber warriors stay within the Army’s employed confines. He suggested the Army should revise its personnel processes through such things as an additional skill identifier.
“We have to have a way to manage the talent in this because it takes a long time to train them, and we can’t just put them in a regular unit or we lose them,” Cardon said. “That would be fiscally irresponsible on our part.”
While the threat of employee turnover to more lucrative positions in the private sector is very real for IT professionals in the Army Cyber Command, Sergeant Maj. Rodney Harris believes the experience gained through missions that don’t exist in the private sector. Yet one problem he sees is that the current Army personnel system doesn’t reward soldiers for specializing in network warfare and remaining in the field.
Cardon recommended to senior Army leaders that the Army’s cyber force structure be re-examined every two years, to keep up with technological innovations and new threats.
