The Air Force needs higher-tech tools and sensors that can monitor networks for signs of malware and sort through the millions of alerts it receives each day indicating potential compromises. The Air Force’s information warfare organization, 16th Air Force, has been working over the last year to better partner with industry, academia, and other government agencies to meet those high-tech requirements through an effort called the Phoenix Initiative.
The team convened a summit in August 2023 to talk through its highest priority gaps and technology needs and identified targeting, cybersecurity, and its Distributed Common Ground System enterprise as its highest priority missions. Now, with those focus areas driving its efforts, the service is analyzing where within those missions it can take risks and where it needs new sensors, artificial intelligence tools, and other capabilities to help it operate efficiently and respond quickly to threats.
Among the other technologies 16th Air Force is exploring is artificial intelligence and machine learning. The organization receives around 2.5 million alerts of possible compromises each day, and it wants to use AI/ML tools to help move faster and more efficiently. Plans to elevate 16th Air Force as a service component command could complicate the process, but elevating Air Forces Cyber as a direct report to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is a clear sign of support for the organization’s mission.
