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Pentagon to build Cyber Mission Force worth $1.9 billion

September 14, 2015 at 8:48 am

The Pentagon plans to complete the establishment of a new Cyber Mission Force made up of 133 teams of more than 6,000 “cyber operators” by 2018, and it’s already nearly halfway there, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)  reported.

The website quoted a statement by the Pentagon saying: “The Pentagon intends to spend $1.878 billion to pay for the Cyber Missions Force consisting of approximately 6,100 individuals in the four military services.”

FAS noted that “this effort began in October 2013 and today the Pentagon has 3,100 personnel assigned to 58 of the 133 teams,” nearly 50 per cent of the intended capacity.

The Department of Defence has three primary missions in cyberspace: defending the Pentagon’s information networks to protect its missions; defending the US against cyber-attacks; and providing full-spectrum cyber options to support contingency plans and military operations, Assistant Secretary of Defence, Eric Rosenbach is reported to have explained.

Rosenbach said at an April 14 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee: “To carry out these missions, we are building the Cyber Mission Force and equipping it with the appropriate tools and infrastructure to operate in cyberspace. Once fully manned, trained and equipped in Fiscal Year 2018, these 133 teams will execute USCYBERCOM’s three primary missions with nearly 6,200 military and civilian personnel.”

The website quoted Admiral Cecil D. Haney, commander of US Strategic Command, as saying: “We are building these cyber teams in order to, one, protect ourselves from cyber-attacks …. The other aspect of it, we are distributing these forces out to the various combatant commands so that they can be integrated into our overall joint military force capability.”

“Worldwide Cyber Threats” was the subject of an open hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.