WASHINGTON — In September, the Air Force announced the 55th Communications Squadron had met all objectives to be redesignated as the 55th Cyber Squadron, meaning the service would add a new mission defense team to its capabilities, a specialized cyber team focused on defending critical Air Force missions and installations such as critical infrastructure or computers associated with aircraft and remotely piloted systems.
The Air Force has been on a multiyear path to redesignate communications squadrons through efficiencies realized by outsourcing mundane IT efforts to private industry allowing it to reinvest its people to conduct cyber defense.
As a result, service has been in the process of building these mission defense teams, which differ from the cyber protection teams that the Air Force, and other services, provide to U.S. Cyber Command.
Specifically, while the technical tools between mission defense teams and cyber protection teams are similar, the mission is slightly different, a spokesperson from Air Combat Command told C4ISRNET. Mission defense teams are aligned to specific missions allowing for dedicated experts in each mission area, while cyber protection teams defend missions based on Cyber Command priorities. The distinction has previously been made that mission defense teams serve as beat cops while cyber protection teams are SWAT teams.
Read more at C4ISRNET
About damn time! Let us fondly hope their computers were not assembled by the perfidious Communist Chinese!