Report Outlines $10-11B Reallocation Needed to Create a New Cyber Force

A possible new uniformed service focused solely on cyberspace operations would require an initial budget of $10 billion to $11 billion, according to a report released today by the Commission on US Cyber Force Generation. 0 project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The commission consists of several recently retired two- and three-star cyber commanders, former top Pentagon cyber officials, and mid-level cyber personnel.

The report operates under the hypothetical that a directive to create a Cyber Force has been given and provides a roadmap for implementation. It addresses current arrangements in which each military service maintains its own personnel policies, troop rotations, and pay scales while supplying a set number of teams to US Cyber Command.

US Cyber Command employs those forces in operations for the other geographic combatant commands.

The initial $10 billion to $11 billion budget recommendation would realign money Congress has already allocated to the military services, Joshua Stiefel told reporters. Stiefel, vice president for government relations at software company Second Front and a former professional staff member at the House Armed Services Committee, said the funds already exist in the budget.

“That would be an easy thing that a Cyber Force could take on to then be doled out to Cyber Command, et cetera.

That’s for later. But that money exists in the budget today,” he said. Stiefel added that unifying, consolidating, and centralizing the personnel and funding would produce a better return on investment.

“When that go order comes, we have to be better prepared than we were for Space Force,” Montgomery said. “You need to be ready to go.