Increasing Chinese cybersecurity threats have prompted the U.S. Air Force to split its intelligence and cybersecurity functions years after they were consolidated into a singular A2/6 command, according to DefenseScoop.
Such a separation — which would restore intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance responsibilities to A2 alone while bringing in a three-star general to lead the new A6 command by next spring — aims to bolster Air Forces Cyber as sought by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, said A2/6 Head Lt. Gen. Leah Lauderback at this year's DAFITC conference. "It needs to be elevated so that it is on par with air superiority, with mobility superiority, with electromagnetic superiority, all of the other mission sets that we have in the service. I think that this elevation of both the 6 and then of AFCYBER is going to put this at the forefront of all of the senior leadership within the Department of the Air Force, so that they understand you can't work without comms and you can't work without cyber operations, attacking the enemy and defending from the enemy," Lauderback added.
