Warfighting in Cyberspace: Military Domains Demand Uniformed Services

Abstract

The nation needs a branch of service to focus solely and distinctly on conducting warfare in and through cyberspace. Principle to this argument is the notion that cyberspace is a warfighting domain and not a warfighting function. This distinction serves as the basis for the claim to establish a uniformed service dedicated to the execution of all warfighting functions in cyberspace. Furthermore, this paper examines the statutory requirements of the nations current military departments and associated branches and claims that the same requirements exist in cyberspace and therefore justifies a dedicated organization. Cyberspace organization, training, and equipping is different than other domains and deserves its own focus. The current military departments resource cyberspace to suit their primary domain and in doing so suffocate cyberspace warfighting potential. It also identifies the changing nature of cyberspace and why a service branch is best postured to perform capability development for a warfighting domain especially one as dynamic as cyberspace. Lastly, the paper examines how creating a service branch for cyberspace mimics command and control for other domains and allows Geographic Combatant Commands (GCC) the ability to integrate all warfighting domains within their assigned region.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 04, 2018
Accession Number
AD1177011

Entities

People

  • Steve C. Grabowsky

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Cyberspace
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Land Warfare
  • Military Force Levels
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Network Protocols
  • Organizational Structure
  • Students
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States
  • United States Special Operations Command
  • United States Transportation Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control