Army adding more cyber teams

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Army will be building two more cyber mission force teams for U.S. Cyber Command this year, according to a top official.

Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, commander of Army Cyber Command, told an audience at the TechNet Augusta conference Wednesday that the service is dedicated to beefing up the force in support of geographic combatant commands’ missions and the priorities of the National Defense Strategy.

Barrett also noted that these two teams will be followed by two additional teams that will be stood up this year for Cybercom.

Cyber Command has been approved to grow its cyber mission force in recent years from the initial 133 teams that conduct defensive, offensive and support missions.

“Between FY22-FY24, we expect the CMF presence to continue to evolve. In FY22 — 4 teams [will be added] and in FY23 — 5 teams, for a total of 142 teams,” a Cybercom spokesperson told FedScoop.

The majority of new cyber mission force teams will come from the Army and Air Force and consist of a variety of mission sets, though it is too early to tell where exactly they’ll be assigned, according to the spokesperson.

The Army has approved significant growth for its cyber and electronic warfare force. In 2018, the Army folded electronic warfare personnel into the cyber branch converging around an emerging concept the service called cyber and electromagnetic activities, or CEMA. For the high-end personnel, the schoolhouse would send them to the cyber mission force at Cyber Command. However, others will learn foundational concepts of cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum and could serve in new tactical electronic warfare units or in integrated cyber, electronic warfare and information operations units, as well as staff sections.

Offensive cyber forces conduct operations under what’s known as Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber, which provide planning, targeting, intelligence and cyber capabilities to the combatant commands to which they’re assigned. The heads of the four service cyber components also lead their respective JFHQ-C and oversee the cyber teams that conduct operations for the combatant commands.

Army Cyber Command is responsible for U.S. Africa Command, Central Command and Northern Command.