Individual airmen will be able to operate cyber-hardened weapons with the help of an emerging Air Force unit called the Cyber Resilience Office for Weapons Systems, or CROWS, service leaders explained.
The aim of the office, established by Air Force Materiel Command, is to analyze the vulnerabilities which exist in
weapons systems and address potential problems such as intrusions,
malicious activities or cyberattacks.
“If we have an incident with one of our weapons systems, how do we solve that problem? What does it mean to the other weapons?” said Brig. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, the Director of Cyberspace Operations and Warfighting Integration, who spoke at an AFCEA NOVA event on Thursday.
Service officials said that part of this initiative involves adding more cyber-resilience to legacy weapons systems which are also increasingly reliant upon computer technology.
Kennedy said that the CROWS office exists, in large measure, to strengthen and improve cybersecurity for existing platforms such as an F-16, F-15 or F-35.
“The cyber domain is the key to integrating across all the other domains,” he said.
