The US air force held an activation ceremony in Texas yesterday for its new cyberspace combat unit, the 24th Air Force, which will "provide combat-ready forces trained and equipped to conduct sustained cyber operations".

The 24th will be commanded by former Minuteman missile and satellite-jamming specialist Major-General Richard Webber. Under his command are two cyber "wings", the 688th Information Operations Wing and the 67th Network Warfare Wing, plus combat communications units.

The 67th, by contrast, seems to be a more offensive unit. It will "execute computer network exploitation and attack" as required, and when not doing that will conduct "electronic systems security assessments" for US military units and facilities.

When fully manned up, the combined wings plus supporting units and the 24th AF headquarters are expected to number several thousand personnel, many of whom will be from new specialist career paths in cyber warfare. Space command public affairs describes the 24th as "a battle-ready, responsive and forward-thinking team of America's best".

The new netwar force will be headquartered at Lackland airbase in Texas, with some personnel dispersed to bases in Oklahoma and Georgia. The US Army and Navy are also in the process of setting up cyberwar units, and there is to be a tri-service cyber command too - co-located with the NSA (another Defense Department tentacle) at Fort Meade. ®

Related stories

• Whitehall plans 'White Noise' phone network collapse (4 November 2009)
• US military gets a camouflaged cloud (7 October 2009)
• New cyber-security research centre opens in Belfast (24 September 2009)
• DARPA seeks 'Precision Electronic Warfare' (25 August 2009)
• US military cyberwar force will work with NSA (24 June 2009)
• Cyber attack could bring US military response (13 May 2009)
• US nuke missile crew falls asleep on the job (25 July 2008)
• Cyber B52 strikes mooted as response to Chinese infowar (6 June 2008)
• USAF Colonel goes on the offensive with botnet destroyer plan (12 May 2008)
• US Army cyber colonel in call to network arms (9 April 2008)
• US Air Force: Looking for a few good cyber warriors (5 March 2008)