Air Force hammers out cyber warfare structure

The military has yet to develop the analytical structure to anticipate the effects of offensive cyber weapons and the command structure to approve their use, although it is working toward such ends, reports David A. Fulghum at Aviation Week’s Ares Blog.

After decades of delay, the Air Force has started conducting legal reviews of weapons and cyber capabilities in an effort to formulate what constitutes a cyber weapon, a cyber capability and a cyber operation.

The legal review is under way in the wake of a White House announcement that set forth how far military commanders can go in using cyberattacks, computer-based operations and routine espionage in other countries and are likely to be followed by strategies that outline how to win wars that involve cyber weaponry.