Cyber-Battlespace: Navy vs Air Force

Battlespace
By Bob Brewin

The Navy, according to an internal document that came my way thanks to an Air Force reader, plans to rebrand its Naval Network Warfare Command as the Naval Cyber Forces Command, reflecting the fact that "cyberspace is increasingly important and inseparable from our national defense interests," the internal document stated.

That document, The Naval Network Warfare Command, Command Renaming Communications Plan, said, "Cyberspace has become the global battlespace. According to Adm. Gary Roughhead, the chief of naval operations, the next battle is the information domain and the first shots have already been fired."

The Navy seems to have taken a page from the original Air Force Cyber Command playbook by viewing cyberspace as "a domain like land, sea, air and space and it must be defended," according to the brief.

Just like the Air Force, the Navy views the best defense is a good offense, with offensive cyberspace operations as part of the Cyber Forces Command's portfolio. "The effects we can produce in and through cyberspace range from simple deterrence to destruction and defeat of any adversary -- the full range of operational effects," the brief said.

Cyber Forces Command and Fleet Intelligence

The Cyber Forces Command will be built around the existing Naval Network Warfare Command, which was formed in 2002 from 23 organizations, including the former Naval Space Command, the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Command, the Fleet Information Warfare Center, and the Navy Component Task Force-Computer Network Defense. In 2005, the Naval Network Warfare Command absorbed the Naval Security Group, which handled signals intelligence and cryptography.

These organizations already provide the Naval Network Warfare Command with building blocks for a cyber command, including network operations, but the Navy also plans to add fleet intelligence to the Cyber Forces Command mix, along with surveillance and reconnaissance.
These additional missions will give the Cyber Forces Command a lot more clout than the Air Force ever imagined for its Cyber Command.

The fleet intelligence part of the Cyber Forces Command will do just what its name implies: focus on providing intelligence to commanders at the operational fleet or aircraft squadron level. The Office of Naval Intelligence, which deals with global maritime intelligence, will not come under the Cyber Forces Command, according to the internal paper.

The internal paper said this change needed to be made because "the current fleet organizational structure process for gathering intelligence and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance is less than optimal and lacks coherence across all naval warfare areas." The current, somewhat disjointed structure for fleet intelligence and ISR "lacks coherence" and impedes the Navy's ability to deal with increasingly complex threat environments in the future, the paper added.

A Navy source told me that the intel folks appear less than pleased with this realignment and "may have to be dragged kicking and screaming" into the Cyber Forces Command future.

Three-Star Clout

When the Air Force kicked off its grand Cyber Command plan, it was a three-star job, but now that it will come under the Air Force Space Command, as I reported last week, it most likely will be a two-star job.

But the Cyber Forces Command will have three-star clout, with the head of the Naval Network Warfare Command, Vice Adm. H. Denby Starling II, tapped to run the new command.

Rear Adm. Sam Cox, who currently serves as fleet intelligence director and director for plans and policy for the Naval Network Warfare Command, will take on the same jobs in the Cyber Forces Command.

You Can Keep Your Rating

While the Air Force will continue to rebrand its computer and communications technicians with a new cyber moniker, the Navy has no similar plans to merge computer, communications or electronic technicians into one career field, according to the internal paper. The Navy does not plan to merge its intelligence or information and warfare communities either, the paper said.

The Cyber Forces Command will not result in any reduction in the number of personnel in the Navy intelligence community or in officer or enlisted ranks in the network, gadget or gizmo fields.

No Blaze of Publicity

The Navy has worked quietly on the formation of the Cyber Forces Command for about a year, an approach that stands in stark contrast to the Air Force, which ran TV and Web advertisements for the Cyber Command.

Maybe that's why the Cyber Forces Command will emerge unscathed from bureaucratic battles over the cyber domain thing inside the Pentagon.

The Gordon England Decision

The Navy planned to announce the stand-up of the Cyber Forces Command at the start of October, but now awaits a decision from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England on how the cyber mission will be sliced and diced among the three service branches, a source told me.

That Navy source added that the Omaha, Neb.-based U.S. Strategic Command will have overall responsibility for the cyber units, with an announcement planned for the end of this month.