Horses, Bayonets and Cyber Warfare

The final debate between President Obama and republican hopeful Mitt Romney revealed a startling weakness in the the challenger's knowledge of current military strategic and tactical plans. Horses and bayonets is clearly the catch phrase which the loyal dissidents have jumped all over.

True there are horses utilized in the DoD, and combat soldiers are issued bayonets, but the republicans missed the real point or threat to the United States. The greatest threat to the country's security is cyber warfare.

It is not unusual for Congress to allocate two-trillion dollars to projects the pentagon does not want or listed in its annual budget requirement. The two-trillion for weapon systems not listed as requirements, will only benefit military contractors and the congressmen who sponsored those bills. It is an election year.

The two-trillion could be put to better use by the military

There is an advanced persistent threat (APT) to the DoD cyber infrastructure, the internet the public uses, the national energy grid and the global supply chain. It can even includes social media such as Facebook.

APT refers to foreign governments which snoop, hack and attempt to render inoperable a specific target such as the national energy grid. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in a cyber exercise with other government agencies, has shown how feasible it is to attack the grid.

The next surprise attack on the United States will not be physical like Pearl Harbor. It will start with a massive cyber attack with the goal of rendering our military to be helpless.

The main threats are China (Titan Rain) and Russia (Moonlight Maze). Though they strongly deny the attacks, the attacks trace back to those countries. India may also be a player but state sponsorship there is questionable.

President Obama's comment about horses and bayonets should have included those "weapon systems" are basically obsolete in modern warfare. If software/hardware systems can fly drones to attack vectors, an Air Force sans flight crews is on the drawing board. The Navy created the ability to remote control an F-4 fighter in 1971, but only within a short distance from the carrier.

The Chief of Naval Operations would enjoy sharing another two-trillion with the Air Force and Army.
But they would want to spend it on the first line of defense--Cyber Space.