The U.S. Air Force is concerned about cyber-theft and sympathetic to industries that are victimized by digital attack, but the service is not going to pick up the bill by adding cost to its acquisition programs.

"I actually see this as more of a defense industrial base and competitiveness issue than I do an immediate risk to the services," U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told a crowd on Feb. 9 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies following a budget hearing on Capitol Hill. "We have certain industrial, design and engineering advantages, and if they are surreptitiously obtained by others, it reduces those advantages. That's a legitimate issue and one where the department is working with members of the defense industrial base."

However, there is a good-sized "but" that goes with the sympathy. "Clearly this gets into areas that are not the Defense Department's jurisdiction," he says. "I think industry and not just the defense industry should be as worried about this as we are."

Schwartz contends that it's up to the contractors to absorb any additional cost and not pass the financial damage along to the acquisition programs. However, he says that so far, he's seen no effect on program costs. "My gut response is that I have not seen that appear yet," he says.

However, the Pentagon will not skimp on spending for its own offensive and defensive cyber-efforts. "IT and cyber specifically are clearly growth areas," Schwartz says. "Collectively we are struggling to get our arms around it. It's a massive problem. There are a multitude of policies and jurisdictional steps and statutory issues to work through. From an Air Force point of view we are increasingly dependent on our networks to execute. So defending those networks is profoundly important.

"In addition, there are places for more offensive [cyber] use," he says. "Where it supports traditional Air Force missions, we are pursuing that capability. Clearly you could try to mitigate the risk associated with an SA-20 [surface-to-air missile], perhaps non-kinetically with electrons."

Schwartz did not link pervasive cyber-intrusions and theft of defense programs to the Chinese. "They are striving to arrive at a broad-based, multiple-mission capability in air and cyberspace," he says. "It suggests to me that we need to be aware of and respond to that reality."

Part of that response is not to become overly reliant on remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs).

"We should not take the example of Iraq and Afghanistan -- which was essentially benign airspace -- to suggest that RPAs are any time, any place systems," Schwartz says. "They are not. Contested airspace is a different environment. It's my contention that while the balance clearly is shifting toward RPAs, there will continue to be for the next 30 years a place for manned tactical aircraft. Would you be comfortable with a nuclear-armed RPA? I wouldn't."

With that statement, Schwartz carves out a place in future defense budgets for a new bomber. But he hastens to assure people that it will not be extravagant, not least of all so that it can be bought in significant numbers. The Air Force has suggested up to 100 aircraft in the past, but recently analysts have been putting the fleet size at 200.

"We are going to make our best effort to not over-design the aircraft," Schwartz says. "We are not going to buy the B-2 again. The idea is to produce a penetrating platform that is sufficiently affordable to buy in numbers."