Mattis: Don’t create separate military cyber service

[rbc]

The United States should not create a separate military cyber service, former Defense Secretary James Mattis said Wednesday, but rather should establish a way for the Pentagon to operate inside the country in the event of a serious cybersecurity incident.

The remarks from Mattis came on the same day that the House Armed Services Committee adopted into the annual defense policy bill an amendment ordering a study on the possibility of a U.S. Cyber Force, with its author citing limitations in Cyber Command’s role. A similar provision was excluded from a final deal on last year’s defense authorization law.

“CYBERCOM has been an incredibly well-led organization that has made the best of the hand it’s dealt,” Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, wrote in Defense News this week. “But the limitations of the current structure — with cyber officers and enlisted personnel spread across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps — are more apparent and the implications are more dangerous than ever before.”

Mattis contended in a conversation at DefenseTalks hosted by DefenseScoop that it would be unwise to break out a separate service.
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Mattis: Don’t create separate military cyber service