The Government Accountability Office found gaps in how the U.S. Cyber Command will implement plans to transfer responsibilities to train and maintain members of the Cyber Mission Force to military service branches.
GAO released a report on Wednesday highlighting the challenges facing the unit’s transition. The Department of Defense launched the cyber force in 2013, which is composed of personnel from all service branches, in an effort to increase the defense capability of military networks.
The force has 133 teams that reported full operational capability ahead of the transition. However, as the department plans to transfer training responsibility of the force from CYBERCOM to the military services, GAO said it found most teams failed to meet readiness standards in late 2018.
The Army and Air Force also did not include all CMF training requirements in their plans to maintain the cyber teams and lacked time frames for the validation of foundational courses.
GAO recommended the military services update training plans to include specific personnel requirements. The agency also called on CYBERCOM to develop and document a plan establishing independent assessors to evaluate CMF training.
