Creation of the new organization, which initially will operate with authorities equal to those of the service’s numbered air forces, is intended to combat the ever-growing Internet prowess of terrorist groups like al Qaeda and possible rival nations.

“The idea of freedom of cyberspace may, in time, be the same kind of principle as freedom of the seas and freedom of the skies,” Wynne said during a Nov. 2 conference in Arlington, VA. “This means that cyberspace is a domain in which many rely, and in which warfighting can and by some definitions already takes place.”

Under the plan announced this week, Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley have decided to place the 8th Air Force, which specializes in network warfare, deep-strike, airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and other kinds of missions, to lead the service’s growing list of activities in cyberspace. That outfit’s chief, Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, will also lead the new cyberspace command.

“With a long and strategic deep-strike heritage, [8th Air Force officials] will develop the force by reaching across all Air Force commands to draw appropriate leaders and appropriate personnel” into the cyberspace command, Wynne said. Because the 8th contains the 67th Information Operations Wing, the organization is an appropriate “match for this start-up” outfit, the secretary said.

To that end, the wing’s Web site boasts that it is “the Air Force’s only network warfare wing.”

The service already has a host of shops scattered across its nine major commands that perform cyberwarfare missions, officials say. The idea behind creating a single cyberspace MAJCOM is to bring them all under one roof -- and one command chain -- to “more easily harness their collective power,” one Air Force official told ITAF Nov. 2.

To that end, the “aim is to develop ultimately a major command that stands alongside Air Force Space Command and Air Combat Command,” Wynne said during this week’s conference. The service officials told ITAF the plan is to eventually place a four-star commander in charge of the soon-to-be MAJCOM for cyber operations.

Speaking to reporters several hours after Wynne’s announcement, Elder said he plans to focus his near-term efforts on identifying requirements for future cyber platforms and systems, as well as obtaining the technically savvy individuals to operate those advanced high-technology applications.

Last December, when they were both relatively new to their posts, Wyne and Moseley published a new Air Force mission statement, which reads: “The mission of the U.S. Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in the air, space and cyberspace.”

The revised strategic statement added two key facets: “sovereign options” and “cyberspace.” In a Dec. 9, 2005, statement, Wynne noted that “we have quite a few of our airmen dedicated to cyberspace . . . from security awareness, making sure the networks can’t be penetrated, as well as figuring out countermeasures.”

The 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review also states that cyberspace is playing an increasingly important role in U.S. military operations.

The new command “should enable the employment of global cyber power across the full spectrum of conflict, both as a supported and/or supporting component of a joint force,” Wynne and Moseley stated in a Sept. 6 letter to a list of Air Force and Pentagon leaders.

“Inherent in this requirement is the need to integrate the full range of global effects across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and networked systems and must include scalability of force packages, ease of implementation and enhanced componency and force presentation through” U.S. Strategic Command, the letter adds.

Wynne and Moseley want the cyberspace command eventually to become the service entity that trains and equips all forces branded with the “cyber” moniker, according to officials and documents. The manpower and personnel shop, or A1 office, at the service’s Pentagon headquarters and “other functional experts” have been tasked with identifying which Air Force specialties will be classified in the cyberspace realm, the letter states.

The service’s move to bolster its efforts to conduct cyberspace missions comes as Islamic extremist groups like al Qaeda and other U.S. enemies have demonstrated expanded capabilities in using the Internet to spread their messages, transfer funds and communicate. Groups like al Qaeda and other extremist organizations can be effective using cyberspace because “as a warfighting domain, it’s different than the land, air and space domains,” according to Lani Kass, the service’s Cyberspace Task Force director.

This week, Wynne said he has directed Elder to fashion a “roadmap” that will help guide efforts to pull existing organizations under the Cyberspace Command umbrella, as well as grow the new organization into a major command. “We expect that work will stretch out for the bulk of next year,” he said.

The secretary did not go into specifics about any terms of reference for that roadmap, but said he wants Elder to “take a good, hard look” at how the new organization would best be constructed.

He spoke at a conference sponsored by the Defense News Media Group.

During the media briefing later the same day, Elder told reporters he has “four months . . . to look at how we would do this.” That plan will be wide-ranging, the three-star said, noting it will include an assessment of offensive and defensive cyberwarfare requirements, as well as a review of current capabilities and future needs.

To that end, Moseley has directed Elder to fashion a list of “immediate resources” 8th Air Force officials will need to develop the roadmap, the soon-to-be Cyberspace Command chief said. That list is due to Moseley by Nov. 16, the same day service officials are slated to huddle for a cyberwarfare-themed summit.

As the numbered force begins work on its cyber needs roadmap, Air Force Materiel Command officials are slated to travel to 8th Air Force headquarters at Barksdale Air Force Base, LA, to review the organization’s science and technology research to identify what work should be tagged with the “cyberwarfare” moniker.

Elder told reporters it is refreshing that the AMC group will essentially ask he and his staff, “Where do you want us to spend this money?”

As the 8th Air Force prepares to take on this new mission, plans call for it to retain its deep-strike mission and related bomber portfolio, the secretary said.

In part, the service is standing up the new cyberspace outfit in an attempt to ramp up their abilities to protect U.S. military information networks and block attacks aimed at those electronic realms. The move also embodies the latest step by Wynne and Moseley to elevate cyberwarfare to the same high-profile status as land-, air- and sea-based battles, as well as the military’s growing dependence on space assets.

Increasing activities in cyberspace will “put the nation’s most technologically capable force on a path to do our share of the task of presenting to our president and the nation, and therefore the combatant commanders, the trained and ready forces they may need to ensure the same securities and freedom of cyberspace that many [around the world] already enjoy in the oceans, in the air and in space,” Wynne said this week.

While service officials contend they have yet to fashion cost estimates for creating and operating the new outfit, they say the fiscal year 2009 budget cycle will be key for the new command. That budget process will offer the service its first opportunity to implement a research, development and acquisition strategy for cyberspace. The two service leaders have tasked Air Force Materiel Command with formulating that plan, according to the September missive.

Wynne this week reiterated that the FY-09 spending blueprint will contain the first spending request specifically for the new shop.

From an operational standpoint, Wynne and other service officials have made clear they plan to exploit the entire electronic spectrum during future cyberspace missions.

“We understand the physics, the technology, the synergies required to operate in and through cyberspace,” Moseley said during a separate Sept. 27 address to conference attendees. “We intend to operate across the entire electromagnetic spectrum: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, X-ray, directed energy, and applications we have not even begun to think about.”

Plans call for the new organization to initially operate on an equal footing with the service’s numbered air forces, several officials said this week.

“You don’t want to stand up a new thing like this and have it be a major command right off the bat,” the service official involved in Air Force cyberspace operations said. “Maybe it will be a major command one day, but not right now.”