Faculty Spotlight

Cyber Experts Call for Independent Cyber Force to Address Critical Personnel Shortages

Posted Dec 17 2024

In a comprehensive new report recently highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, Erica Lonergan, assistant professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and Rear Admiral (ret.) Mark Montgomery assert the need to establish a dedicated US Cyber Force as an independent military service branch. The report, titled “United States Cyber Force: A Defense Imperative” and published by the research institute Foundation for Defense of Democracies (where Montgomery is a senior director and fellow), argues that creating a separate cyber service is the solution to troubling personnel and readiness issues within US Cyber Command.

US Cyber Command—made up of about 6,200 military and civilian personnel—is part of the Defense Department, but does not currently have its own service branch of the military. To address its growing operational responsibilities in defending against foreign cyber threats, Cyber Command is therefore staffed from across other services of the military, all of which have different recruiting standards and training. The result has often been misalignment, confusion, and problems with retention.

The report draws on interviews with more than 75 current and former military cyber personnel who describe persistent staffing problems, including the routine reassignment of skilled cyber operators to non-cyber roles. Lonergan and Montgomery’s analysis also highlights significant and ongoing challenges in recruiting, training, and retaining qualified cyber personnel under the current structure. 

Lonergan told the Journal that “the type of people you need to fight a war in cyberspace is different than the type of people you need to fight war on land or at sea or in the air. And skill sets aren’t easily transferable.” As executive director of the New York Cyber Task Force, Lonergan helped shape recommendations that influenced President Joe Biden’s National Cybersecurity Strategy in 2023. The Task Force’s work emphasized the importance of public-private operational collaboration and the need for long-term investment in cyber defense capabilities.

In their report, Lonergan and Montgomery estimate that an independent Cyber Force would initially require a significantly larger staff or approximately 10,000. While critics argue that creating a new service branch could be disruptive and costly, Lonergan and Montgomery counter that the Space Force provides a successful model for establishing a smaller, specialized service focused on a critical domain of warfare.

United States Cyber Force: A Defense Imperative” comes as Congress is considering whether to include a study of the Department of Defense’s cyber force structure in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. With escalating cyber threats from nation-state actors, the report’s authors argue that reorganizing US military cyber capabilities is an immediate priority that “demands nothing less than the establishment of an independent cyber service,” noting that “only Congress can create a new independent service, so it is time for lawmakers to act.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been partially assisted by generative AI tools to gather and organize publicly available information. All facts, quotes, and analysis have been verified by human editors, and the final story was written and edited by humans to ensure accuracy.