Lawmakers Approve Proposal for Cyber Force Feasibility Study

The Senate Armed Services Committee has added a proposal to the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Department of Defense’s National Academy of Public Administration to study the viability of a uniformed cyber force.

The amendment includes a clause banning Pentagon personnel from interfering and influencing the Academy’s study. According to the legislative text, the effort is expected to take around six months.

The amendment, proposed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, is in line with lawmakers’ desire for an independent cyber service. It also comes amid concerns that adversarial cyber threats have only grown more robust and more sophisticated throughout the years, The Record reported.

The approval comes months after Rep. Mike Gallagher, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s cyber, innovative technologies and information systems subcommittee, said he favored a consolidated cyber military service due to bureaucracy concerns.

As it stands, cyber military forces are distributed across the military services and are led by the U.S. Cyber Command. Lt. Gen. Charles Moore, deputy commander of CYBERCOM, said the combatant commands plans to build additional teams to protect the United States against adversarial threats.