The Air Force Materiel Command has established a new unit tasked with protecting weapons systems by diagnosing and addressing cyber intrusions and attacks, senior service officials said.
The Cyber Resilience Office for Weapons Systems, or CROWS, seeks to examine how the Air Force fields and sustains its weapons when it comes to cybersecurity.
The aim of the office 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.