Report warns US military structure weakens cyber defences
A new US study warns that the Pentagon's reliance on traditional military branches to recruit cyber talent leaves a critical gap in defences against state-backed hacking, with direct implications for European security.
Two US defence think tanks have published a report urging the creation of a dedicated US Cyber Force, warning that the current military structure is fundamentally unsuited for modern digital warfare.
For European governments and businesses, the structural weaknesses across the Atlantic have direct security implications. The United States is engaged in daily cyber contact with adversaries, including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and criminal groups. As NATO's primary cyber power, any inability to generate a robust, specialized cyber fighting force weakens the broader transatlantic defence posture against state-backed attacks on critical infrastructure.
The report, jointly produced by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, highlights a structural mismatch. While the US has distinct services for land, sea, air and space, cyberspace remains a borderless domain treated as a secondary support function.
US Cyber Command is responsible for employing cyber capabilities in military operations. However, it relies entirely on the Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force to recruit, train and equip the personnel needed to execute these missions. Because those traditional services have their own core priorities, such as building fleets or attaining air superiority, cyber talent generation becomes an afterthought.
This misalignment creates measurable economic and security risks. The military's cyber enterprise struggles with inconsistent recruiting and retention. Highly skilled coders and software vulnerability experts often do not fit the standard recruitment mould of the traditional services. Furthermore, current career models force top operators into management roles to advance, rather than rewarding deep technical mastery in offensive and defensive operations.
The report’s authors, Dr. Erica Lonergan of Columbia University and RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery of the FDD, argue that artificial intelligence will only accelerate the scale and speed of future cyber operations. They conclude that relying on a force stitched together across multiple services with competing incentives is no longer viable against rapidly evolving threats.
They propose a streamlined Cyber Force with a narrowly defined mission: organizing, training and equipping personnel for offensive and defensive cyberspace operations. The new service would not absorb standard military IT networks, which would remain under the purview of the existing branches. The goal is simply to provide Cyber Command with a dedicated force-generation system, much like the Air Force was created when airpower became too critical to remain a secondary priority.
