Cyber ACTS/SAASS: A Second Year of Command and Staff College for the Future Leaders of Our Cyber Forces

Abstract : At the dawn of airpower, the Army Air Corps created the Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS), which focused upon developing TTPs as well as doctrine that would best use airpower in war. Currently, the Air Force's School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS) at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, produces highly capable warfare strategists in support of the joint fight. We need to blend ideas from these two programs into a school that develops cyber power leaders capable of guiding the Air Force into a future where we can fly, fight, and win in air, space, and cyberspace to support America's military objectives. The Air Force is struggling to determine the best way of developing offensive and defensive capabilities for cyber warfare. Our warfighting prowess across the land, sea, air, and space domains relies upon our ability to maneuver freely within cyberspace. Preserving that ability represents a critical defensive requirement. We must also become capable of holding at risk our adversaries' capacity to maneuver within cyberspace. This article introduces a concept concerning how and why our service should cultivate cyber-oriented warrior-scholars who can shape the Air Force fight in cyberspace. Just as ACTS gave rise to modern airpower, so do we need a school that produces cyber-oriented warrior-scholars who can help guide the future Air Force. One possibility involves adding a second year of technical study of the cyber domain to the foundation in operational art and science offered by Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) at Maxwell. Such a second-year cyber school already exists within Air University: the intermediate developmental education (IDE) cyber warfare program at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), located at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. I propose that the Air Force create a two-year professional military education (PME) path consisting of ACSC followed by AFIT's cyber warfare program, paralleling the current path of ACSC followed by SAASS.