18 states vie for Cyber Command headquarters - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

18 states vie for Cyber Command headquarters

Eighteen states are competing to host the permanent headquarters of the new Air Force Cyber Command, and the Air Force will announce a winner by December, Secretary Michael W. Wynne said Wednesday.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Wynne said the Air Force will contact representatives of each of the states by mid-March so they can prepare their proposals.

The proposals will be evaluated between July and November, he said, and four or five finalists will be announced in November.

The winner will then be announced in December, Wynne said.

But Wynne indicated that the command headquarters will be “virtual” and will not have a particularly large personnel presence.

“We’ve … asked that it become virtual,” he told lawmakers. “We don’t want it to be a standard pro-forma command. … We think we should go into the information age.”

He also said that most units with cyber missions spread across the country will likely stay in place rather than consolidate at the new headquarters.

The command, which stood up in September, is provisionally located at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.

The states in the running to host the permanent headquarters are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

Discuss: Where should Cyber Command call home?