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Creative Training Solutions Aid in Cyberwarfare

  • Published
  • By Col. Kevin St. John/ 174th Public Affairs
  • 152nd Air Operations Group

 

Cyberwarfare is an ever growing and changing frontline. Due to this fact, the Airmen of the 152nd Air Operations Group (AOG), who are experts at strategizing, planning and directing the joint execution of air power through the Air Operations Center (AOC) have decided to focus on different methods of training.

 

The AOC has ensured America’s dominance on the modern battlefield by commanding, controlling and synchronizing attacks from air, land, and sea.

 

These capabilities require communication squadrons that are actively engaged in air operation centers.

 

These operation centers are occupied by cyber warriors who are America’s modern Guardsmen, they range from various professional backgrounds, such as Corporate IT directors, Computer Network repairmen and even Federal Employees.

 

Lt. Col. Douglas Schafer, the 152nd Air Communications Squadron Commander, finds creative solutions for training such as having guest speakers in order to meet the demanding and rapid pace of cyber warfare changes.

 

This included a recent lecture for Dr. Kamal Jabbour, the United States Air Force’s principal scientific authority in Information Assurance.

 

The discussion with Dr. Jabbour addressed the threats that our nation faces, informing and preparing the New York Air National Guard to preserve and innovate joint all-domain power projection and force protection capabilities in the Total Force & Joint Operations.

 

The 152nd is adapting to operate across all domains – expanding to rapid decision-cycles across air, land, sea, space, electromagnetic and cyber.

 

Col. Kevin St. John, Deputy Group Commander for the 152nd, went on to describe the concepts and events they support “we look at employing multiple platforms, manned and unmanned, penetrating and non-penetrating, and leveraging their payloads and connectivity to share battle space information at a speed and scale never before seen.”

 

Being able to work with other components and nations play a part as well.

 

“There are layers and considerations to this as wide and deep as you can imagine, including interoperability with our allies’ and enabling coherent and resilient linking from the strategic level to the tactical edge” said Lt. Col. Schafer.

 

Units like the 174th Attack Wing and 152nd AOG are actively seeking cyber guardsmen as they continue training to protect America in times of war and peace.