U.S. Cyber Command Leader visits 16th Air Force’s (AFCYBER) Cyber and Intelligence Forces

  • Published
  • By 1Lt. Michael Hardy
  • 16th Air Force
Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas --  U.S. Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander, U.S. Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency, and chief of the Central Security Service visited 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, August 1-3.

During his visit, Nakasone met with U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander, 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), and several 16th Air Force units and mission partners who briefed and answered Nakasone’s questions about current cyber and intelligence efforts spanning the globe.

Air Force Cyber personnel stationed globally provided remote updates and answered questions focusing on partnerships with global allies, alignment of forces and the command’s operational support to U.S. Space Command.

“You have tremendous collaboration with partners,” said Nakasone. “If anyone can handle the mission’s tasks 16th Air Force can.”

Additional briefings covered current efforts such as strategic competition in the “grey zone” and how 16th Air Force is postured to assess information warfare operations.
After elaborating on our efforts in the grey zone, Nakasone highlighted the importance of partnerships the 16th has with allied nations and the effects that come with those partnerships.

Concluding the briefings, Nakasone thanked the Air Force Cyber team for their contribution and delivering outcomes supporting our national defense.
Nakasone coined several Airmen and recognized their efforts in mission success.

Airmen have generated outcomes that include algorithm creation to decrease malicious cyber alerts, new developments using artificial intelligence and machine learning to ensure network security, bilateral communication with allies, and maintaining our nation’s edge in information warfare with the creation of the first information operations package.

The 616th Operations Center Commander echoed Nakasone’s sentiments and lauded their remarkable work.  

“It was an incredible opportunity to directly receive Gen. Nakasone’s strategic guidance and witness our top information warfare Airmen get recognized for their efforts,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Justin Mokrovich, commander, 616th Operations Center. “The positive engagement of our most senior leaders in 16th Air Force and Cyber Command is testament to the significance of our mission and the trust placed in our exceptional teams to execute.”

U.S. Cyber Command directs, synchronizes, and coordinates cyberspace planning and operations to defend and advance national interests in collaboration with domestic and international partners.

Sixteenth Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), headquartered at Joint Base San-Antonio-Lackland, Texas, is the first-of-its-kind Numbered Air Force. Also known as the Air Force’s Information Warfare Numbered Air Force, the 16th integrates multisource intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, cyber warfare, electronic warfare, and information operations capabilities across the conflict continuum, cyber warfare, electronic warfare, and information operations capabilities across the conflict continuum to ensure that our Air Force is fast, lethal and fully integrated in both competition and in war. 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber) provides mission integration of IW at operational and tactical levels… recognizing the role of information in creating dilemmas for adversaries in competition and, if necessary, future conflicts.