US Air Force Advancing Efforts on Cyber-Enabled Air Superiority, Official Says

The U.S. Air Force has started investing in the service branch’s organic cyber capabilities to enhance air superiority, according to Lt. Gen. Leah Lauderback, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber effects operations.

In a recent Defense One webcast, Lauderback, a past Potomac Officers Club event speaker, noted that the service branch’s tactical cyber capability-building effort is currently “in very small numbers, but that is a growth area for sure,” DefenseScoop reported. 

In a July 2023 Hudson Institute event, Lauderback disclosed that the Air Force will build a cyber-focused team that would perform non-kinetic operations in line with offensive kinetic operations to support tactical air missions.

A new National Guard unit, the Mansfield, Ohio-based 179th Cyberspace Wing, will also help the Air Force achieve its goal of cyber-enabled air superiority. The unit was redesignated from a C-130 wing in September to become the first Air National Guard cyber wing.

In another USAF cyber capability-building effort, the 16th Air Force announced in February a partnership with the Poland Cyber Command, a Polish Armed Forces organization focused on advanced information and cryptographic capabilities. During February’s Air and Space Forces Association warfare symposium, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall announced that the 16th Air Force, which is responsible for information warfare, will be elevated to an Air Forces Cyber Command.