General Robert Kehler,US Air Force,Commander,US Strategic Command,made a joint appearance with General Keith Alexander,US Army,Commander,US Cyber Command and Director,National Security Agency,before the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Tuesday.Uncertainty and complexity continue to dominate the national security landscape,General Kehler said,citing Iran's nuclear ambitions;North Korea's ballistic missile launch;civil war in Syria;with the fiscal uncertainty adding additional steep challenges.Our enemies and potential enemies are watching.
Our STRATCOM men and women wield an array of complimentary capabilities.While our heritage is nuclear,today's STRATCOM is far more diverse than ever before.I'm most concerned with the impact fiscal concerns are having on our people.Civilians are 60% of our staff.I believe they will cope with it in the near term;but they may eventually retire early.
Overall,the fiscal concern is like an avalanche.In the longer term,it will affect our sustainment needs.Our responsibilities have not changed,but the pathway we're on is posing growing risk.
For his part,General Alexander said we need cyber legislation.We can both protect civil liberties and privacy and protect our nation in cyber space.Cyber effects are growing.There have been over 140 attacks on Wall Street in the past six months.There was a destructive attack on Saudi Aramco last summer.
We are ahead of developing the teams that we need,our cyber cadre.It is an offensive team DOD would use to defend the nation if attacked in cyber space.We face two issues:1.Command and Control-how will the joint cyber centers work with Cyber Command;2.situational awareness-an attack on Wall Street will be seen by the private sector first.We have to see it in real time,building the operational picture we would share with the Combatant Commands,the FBI and others.This is a new area for many of our folks.
From my perspective,no one actor is to blame for our current lack of preparedness.The US government has made significant strides in the cyber realm.
On nuclear Command and Control,General Kehler added we are very concerned with a cyber-related attack on Command and Control and our nuclear weapons themselves.I am confident today that the Command and Control system and nuclear platforms themselves do not have such a vulnerability.We have looked at that.We need to do better at exercising and detecting such threats.We have a way to go there until we can put an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence.
I'm confident in the deployed weapons and the stockpile.Every year,I and my predecessors have been responsible for assessing the stockpile.
With regard to our ballistic missile defense,I am satisfied that our 30 interceptors can defend against a limited North Korean attack on the West Coast.We are not in an optimal position against Iran.I am cautiously confident we can defend the East Coast from an Iranian attack.It doesn't provide a complete defence against Iran.It would depend on the azimuth of the Iranian missile.
An additional interceptor site is being considered for East Coast defence.
When does the DOD step in to defend the nation from cyber attack,General Alexander asked.The distributed denial of service attacks on Wall Street are best addressed by the Internet service providers,or ISPs.What we're seeing with the banks today I am concerned we're going to see grow throughout the year.
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