Designed to Win: An Agile Approach to Air Force Command and Control of Cyberspace

This study analyzes the need for the Air Force to design a cyberspace command and control approach that can survive and respond to the demands of a high-level conflict against a near-peer opponent. The conclusion is that the cyberspace domain is subject to the same challenges of the other war-fighting domains and command and control approaches that attempt to achieve perfect situational awareness and centralized control will fail; putting operations in all war-fighting domains at risk. The author provides a history of command and control in the land, sea, and air domains and discusses how technology influenced the decision to centralize or decentralize command and control. Next, the writer describes the current Air Force command and control approach for air, space, and cyberspace and demonstrates through a scenario how the different elements interact to control a time sensitive target event that traverses all three Air Force domains. Using this information, the author compares and contrasts the domains and provides recommendation on the most agile command and control approach for Air Force cyberspace. Finally, this paper proposes how the Air Force may best posture its forces to command and control the domain to win a high-level conflict against a near-peer competitor.

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