This is a **BIG** deal - to see how much of a big deal, jump to the end to see the other House-passed provisions. What I hope will come of the Cyber Force study is a clear indication of how the services are doing at producing ready and capable cyber personnel for USCC. The numbers I am aware of indicate that roughly 30% of the MOS-qualified people pass/get through the further training requirements once they get to a USCC unit. With Army numbers alone showing 17As and 17Cs standing at 100%, it means the Army would need to be at 333% in those MOSs to provide the necessary brainpower (note: brainpower - something the Army has not shown it values in its cyber soldiers) USCC needs to do its mission. I hope the study requirement is passed and I'm excited to see what we learn.
Jeff B
1mo
Margaret Smith, Ph.D. Would service branches still retain their extant cyber units or would that be centralized ?
Marshall S. Rich
1mo
Hopefully the study will also measure stress and burnout as well. Erick M. is doing some fascinating research on the operational impact from a cyberpsychology standpoint.
Aden Magee
1mo
The decision was made in 2016 that rather than establishing a Cyber Service, USCYBERCOM would be given Service-like responsibilities as a “Joint Force Trainer.” Since that point, USCYBERCOM has never organized to effectively bifurcate its Service-like Force Generation responsibilities from its global Force Employment responsibilities. The only other CCMD with Service-like force provider responsibilities, USSOCOM, has effectively organized to bifurcate these Military Force missions. These 8 years later, this failing has compelled Congress to redress the Cyber Service decision.
I think it's a matter of incentivizing the right behaviors. In the civilian world you can renegotiate for a raise after you have upskilled. a new cert, degree, or becoming an expert in a new skill could all result in more compensation. The Army has not been great about rewarding any of those behaviors, even receiving a unit coin for these would be out of character from my experience let alone bonuses or raises. Some of that is due to pay scales and promotion timelines tied to OPMD, sometimes its just laziness to submit paperwork. There is some incentive pay programs for some skills, but they aren't mature, are difficult to change, and contingent upon some questionable constraints. I hope that a cyber force would have some merit based pay scales so we can compensate the most impactful personel appropriately. It's obscene that we can't even begin to compensate folks for their skills due to rank/time restrictions.
Boyd Brown
1mo
Sometimes it’s easier to outsource than do it yourself, especially at scale. The military will never be willing to pay soldiers with the needed skills well enough to compete with private sector salaries. When I was in uniform, we had some pretty well compensated contractors doing things that soldiers weren’t trained to do, and it worked out well for both parties.
Alan K.
1mo
Hopefully the study results in more funding. Expansion of cyber capability is something we needed to be accelerating 5 years ago.
Another study to study the study to study that study to study it more. We have a CNMF at USCYBERCOM, let's just give them the budget they need and get moving! No need to create new silos of excellence, please. thanks!