The Department of the Air Force plans to elevate cyber functions by dividing the offices of the deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, known as A2, and the deputy chief of staff for information dominance, called A6, Federal News Network reported Monday.
Lt. Gen. Leah Lauderback, who has been deputy chief of staff of ISR and cyber effects operations at the Air Force since 2022, said she hopes the Senate will confirm a three-star officer by the spring of 2025 to lead the newly created A6, which will focus on cyber issues.
She added that she expects A2 to return to its function of overseeing ISR efforts at the department.
The move is one of the 24 changes proposed by the department’s senior leaders in February to reoptimize the Air Force and Space Force for great power competition.
According to the lieutenant general, the move to split A6 from A2 aligns with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s efforts to transition Air Forces Cyber into a standalone service component command.
“It needs to be elevated so that it is on par with air superiority, with mobility superiority, with electromagnetic superiority,” Lauderback said of the move.
“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,” she added.
