Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), reports the Houston Chronicle, is working with other lawmakers to form a Blue Ribbon Panel to address the nation’s cyber threat,. McCaul is ranking member of the emerging threats and cyber security panel of the Committee on Homeland Security. Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) sent a letter last week criticizing Homeland Security for stonewalling committee efforts to find out about a purported “Cyber Initiative” that the Administration may unveil next month. We take exception to McCaul’s statement that, since 9/11, “very little attention has been paid to the virtual threats.” Perhaps that is true for Homeland Security, but the Air Force has been creating cyber cops and a cyber command to harness the expertise needed to address such threats, primarily for military operations but the service’s cyber experts know they cannot ignore the threat to commercial and civil operations. Here’s a good primer for the Blue Ribbon Panel, Victory in Cyberspace.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.