Future Air Force Operations in Cyberspace

"The United States Air Force is poised to make another technological and strategic leap that has marked its short and storied history. The delivery of payloads of consequence over strategic distance is a hallmark of the Air Force contribution to national defense. Over the last sixty years the threats have changed and the Air Force has combined ideas, technology, and doctrine to produce effects, relevant to their era, that give the President an enduring suite of capabilities to the nation. The emergence of cyberspace as a recognized domain is the latest in a series of technology based mission sets dating back to the beginning of air power. Three cases have emerged and endured over the last 60 years. The 1930s and 1940s were years of strategic bombing. For the first several years of World War II, the only direct action against Nazi Germany was the strategic bomber. The strategic nature of the bomber and missile forces delivering nuclear payloads dominated the 1950s and 1960s. The 1980s and 1990s saw the Air Force recognize that a new operational domain and the enabling technology were emerging in space. Technology now enables precision strike and expeditionary operations as a timely projection of power that enables rapid response and immediately available strategic options. Cyberspace operations are in the idea phase right now. The pace of change and advancement in technology is such that it is impractical and imprudent to wait to determine cyberspaces military implications. Regardless of the outcome, the Air Force has made the first move amongst the services in raising cyberspace operations to the status of operational domain and establishing itself once again as the leader in developing new capabilities and effects relevant to current strategic threats and concerns."--Abstract from web site.