Top U.S. Army cyber officials have said new personnel identification and management are needed to help maximize the cyberwarfare plans and skills of the military, DefenseNews reported Monday.
Joe Gould writes the Defense Department‘s plan to deploy about 133 interoperable teams for the U.S. Cyber Command‘s defense, intelligence, offense and other initiatives would require qualified and trained servicemen.
âWe have to have a way to manage the talent in this because it takes a long time to train them and we canât just put them in a regular unit or we lose them,â Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon said in the report.
Cardon told DefenseNews personnel procedures have to include a system to determine additional skills the servicemen must have to help cyber initiatives and recruit people based on talent instead focusing on personnel assignment.
âIâm more interested in whatâs your skill set and are you able to do the job,” Cardon said in the article. “How are we managing your skill set and do we have a growth path for you to continue?â
Lt. Col. Jeffrey Metzger, training and education chief for the Army Cyber Leader Development, said in the report the personnel needed for the cyber program are sometimes assigned to unusual military occupational specialties.
Gould writes Metzger concurs with Cardon’s suggestion of a system to identify skilled soldiers and to indicate these capabilities in their files.
âIf you look at my file, you wonât know any of the certifications Iâve had, except to see what units Iâve been at, and thatâs got to change,â Metzger said in the report.
According to DefenseNews, Cordon added the personnel and force structure for the cyber command has to be evaluated every two years to keep up with technology trends and threats.
The Army Cyber Command includes Network Enterprise Technology Command, 1st Information Operations Command for land and the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade, which is the first cyber brigade for the Army, the report said.