By: Todd Stewart, PhD, Maj Gen, USAF (Ret.)
AFIT Director & Chancellor
“The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight and win ...in air, space and cyberspace.”
And that’s been the Air Force mission statement for nearly a dozen years now. In November 2005, Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne (an AFIT graduate!) and Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley wrote a joint letter to all airmen of the Air Force, which defined a then-new mission statement, which included the concept of cyberspace. At that time, “cyberspace” was defined as including network security, data transmission and the sharing of information.
The Cyber Evolution
Much has happened since then. In little more than a decade, the cyber threat has proliferated to include attacks by large and small nation states; criminal individuals and groups; and individual hackers, who are simply motivated by the challenge of seeing if they can break through cyber-security defenses. These are national threats, not just national security threats. A variety of sectors in our nation’s critical infrastructure have been cyber targets, including financial institutions, utilities, hospitals, universities, large retail companies and many others. Over the same decade, we’ve also seen the proliferation of technologies incorporating computer-based controllers and processors into everything from (e.g.) fifth-generation fighters like our F-35, industrial manufacturing systems and automobiles, to the hand-held electronic device and the watch or fit-bit that many of us are wearing on our wrist, with many enabled by access to wi-fi systems. While all of this technology provides great benefit, as we become more dependent on it, it is also increasingly a source of cyber vulnerability and potential damage to our Air Force missions and personal lives.
In 2008, the Air Force established 24th Air Force, under Air Force Space Command, in recognition of the growing cyber challenge. And in the following year, in 2009, U.S. Cyber Command stood up, as a sub-unified command under the U.S. Strategic Command. Initially, much of the focus of these organizations was on protecting our networks and information systems. However, recognizing the increasing vulnerability of our weapon systems to cyber attacks, several years ago, DoD developed a strategy that called for4 the Air Force and other services to develop plans to increase the security and resiliency of our weapon systems.
The Air Force Cyber Campaign Plan
The Secretary of the Air Force, Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, AFMC (led by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC)), and Air Force Space Command partnered to form the “Cyber Resiliency Steering Group.” This group produced the “Air Force Cyber Campaign Plan” (CCP), which has two overarching goals: (1) “Bake in” cyber resiliency into new weapon systems, and (2) Mitigate “critical” vulnerabilities in fielded weapon systems. To implement the plan, AFLCMC established the “Cyber Resiliency Office for Weapon Systems” (CROWS) in 2016, with its primary operating location at Hanscom AFB. CROWS IOC was declared in December of 2016, with FOC projected for October of 2017. CROWS also has an office here at W-P AFB and liaisons with other concerned organizations, including (e.g.), AFRL, 24th Air Force, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, Air Force Test Center and the Nuclear Weapons Center.
The Air Force CCP has seven “Lines of Action (LOA):
AFIT: The Air Force Cyber Technical Center of Excellence
The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) has been in the “cyber business” for more than 15 years -- since before it was officially incorporated into the Air Force mission statement. In 2002, AFIT established its “Center for Cyberspace Research” (CCR), within its Graduate School of Engineering and Management (GSEM). The CCR brought together students and faculty from across the GSEM, to facilitate cyber-related teaching and research. Since then, AFIT has developed a number of graduate programs (masters and PhD) with cyber concentrations, Based on the success of the CCR in accomplishing its mission, in 2008 the SECAF and CSAF designated AFIT as the Air Force’s “Cyber Technical Center of Excellence” (AFCyTCoE). In 2010, recognizing the need to further professionally develop its “cyber warriors” over their careers, the Air Force established two multi-week professional continuing education courses (Cyber 200 and Cyber 300) as an educational requirement for its cyber professionals, at various phase points in their careers. The responsibility for these two courses was assigned to AFIT, as the AFCyTCoE.
With development of the Air Force CCP, AFIT has also been involved. In 2016, at the request of AFMC, AFIT developed a short course on “Avionics Vulnerability Assessment & Mitigation,” which it has offered more than a dozen times. AFIT is now fully engaged in support of AFMC on CCP LOA #3.
AFIT now has four schools: the GSEM and three schools that deliver continuing education courses: the School of Systems and Logistics, the Civil Engineer School and the School of Strategic Force Studies. Because cyber has become virtually ubiquitous, impacting all of the Air Force’s core missions and various functional communities, all four of these schools now address cyber-related issues in their respective academic programs and courses. As a result, the whole of AFIT – all four schools – now constitute the AFCyTCoE.
The mission of the Air Force Institute of Technology – as the Air Force’s Cyber Technical Center of Excellence -- is to teach Airmen how to fly, fight and win ... in cyberspace.
Originally published in the Skywrighter, Friday, Jul 7, 2017 edition, page A2
