Developing Cyber Warriors

The US Department of Defense defines cyberspace as a “domain characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) to store, modify, and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures. ” Cyberspace is a warfighting domain on par with air, space, land, and sea, and the US Air Force has accepted the challenge of controlling it, defending it, and operating in it. The US Air Force Academy (USAFA) in cooperation with Air University, the AF Institute of Technology and AF Cyber Command (provisional) is developing the education and training requirements for our future cyber warriors. Much of this work builds on an already established curriculum being taught at USAFA and national training standards defined by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. Our approach is a two-pronged effort. On one hand we provide a multi-disciplinary foundation for every graduate. We accomplish this by identifying and adding specific cyber content to our existing broad based core curriculum. On the other hand we also provide a smaller number of highly skilled, very technical, cyber warriors to support the required missions in the domain of network attack (NetA), network defense (NetD), network surveillance (NetS), and network support. We accomplish this through our accredited Computer Science major and the addition of a three course sequence including Computer Security and Information Warfare, Network Security, and Cryptography. This paper will outline the vision and broad educational requirements required for 21st century officers and provide details on our two-pronged approach to developing cyber warriors