Young officers begin cyber battle training - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Young officers begin cyber battle training

In football, the best offense is a good defense. Turns out, it’s true in cyberwarfare, too.

Airmen in line to become cyberwarfare officers are learning how to counter strikes on electrical power grids, water treatment plants and other operations that rely on computers.

Once they learn how to protect, they’ll learn how to attack.

“In order to understand offense, you have to understand defense. What we are teaching [cyber officers] is to how to operate and maintain the cyberspace environment,” said Lt. Col. Scott Solomon, 333rd Training Squadron commander.

The 16 newly commissioned officers are the first to go through a six-month course designed by military, industry and academic cyber experts, Solomon said. The course kicked off in June at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. A new class begins every two weeks. In a year, the Air Force expects to graduate about 400 cyberwarfare officers.

Today, cyberwarfare officers number about 3,000. They made the switch from communications officers in April, when the service changed the Air Force Specialty Code from 33S to 17D.

Enlisted cyber operators already have a training program but staff sergeants and technical sergeants are getting their own six-month advanced course to earn a 1B4 rating starting in November.

The officer course is split into classified and unclassified sections. In the 41-day unclassified section, students learn basic electronic skills. The last 115 days key in on the classified subjects of cyber surety, deployed operations, laws and ethics, and battlefield networks.

All of the course’s instructors served in, as Solomon put it, “organizations that fight in the cyber world today.”

Solomon demands his instructors keep up with the cyber domain’s nonstop technological advances. They’ll attend seminars such as the DefCon 18 Hacking Conference and visit organizations such as the National Security Agency to see the latest trends. Keeping the course relevant will be a primary focus, Solomon said.

“This has been a problem with training material forever,” he said. “We have designed and developed out objectives in such a way that they are specific in their application, however tactics, techniques and procedures change,” he said.

Second Lt. Calvin Perez, a prior-enlisted communications specialist who received his commission this year, said he considers it a mixed bag to be in the first class.

“The gift is being the first and making history,” Perez said. “At the same time, the curse is everything is thrown at you since it is going through validation.”

The course, according to Solomon, is only the first step in developing the career field for cyber officers.

“We’re at the same stage as when Wilbur and Orville Wright delivered their first operational plane to the military,” he said. “There is still a long way to go.”