AOC 2011: USAF expresses concern over Africa and South America cyber 'peers'

15 November 2011 - by Andrew White - shephardmedia.com

Washington, DC - Technology leaps are creating new, international 'peers' in the realm of EW and cyberspace, according to Lt Gen William Lord, Chief of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

Addressing the Association of Old Crows (AOC) conference on 15 November, Lord confirmed how the next century would be dominated by cyber warfare and highlighted the emergence of newly acquired expertise in Africa and South America.

'The 21st century is the century for cyber,' Lord announced. 'We are developing peers in this business that we may not have had in the past. A whole set of nation states that have skipped the wired part of their history.

'A large part of Africa and big part of South America have skipped [wired facilities] and gone straight to the RF solution and created expertise in this business in these parts of the world. Such peers require us to keep up our game in EW and cyber business where I would argue we have been leaders in the past,' he continued.

As an example, Lord asked whether the USAF should be concerned about the size of the army in Senegal or a small number of computer hackers with access to IP networks.

Meanwhile, Lord confirmed that EW and cyber sectors were 'continuing to fare well' despite current fiscal constraints and described the future as focussing on integration. 'Budgets in cyber and EW business, because of recognition by senior leadership, have remained pretty good...but I think it's all about this integration,' Lord said.

'It's about enabling the joint fight by exchanging authoritative information between the right systems at the right time; synthesising information and coordinating capabilities to produce effects in any domain,' he continued.

Finally, Lord reaffirmed the USAF strategy to 'shape and drive requirements, programming and acquisition to create and sustain a robust net-centric operating environment...underpinned by architecture and authoritative data to inform and influence corporate investment decisions'.

This, he concluded, would provide potential for partnering opportunities as the communications arena shifted from the 'Marconi' to 'Google' era.