Senate Probes Cybercom Readiness Amid China Threat

New efforts to supercharge America's cyber defenses are underway at the Pentagon. Today, Senators on Capitol Hill examined the revised cyber force generation model designed to counter threats from China. NDD's Washington correspondent, Jack Bradley, has the details. The future of war is going to be cyber. The Chinese have executed a deliberate campaign in order to compromise U.S. networks. The Pentagon is stepping up its cyber force plan in the face of rising threats from China. The Senate Armed Services Cyber Security Subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday, probing what the department calls Cyber Comm 2.0. We're treating a cyber capability just like we would a kinetic capability. We're not sprinkling cyber on. We are integrating cyber operations into the Joint Force Commanders Plan. This follows Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's major announcement last December to emphasize cyber security in the military. We're also rapidly strengthening our nation's ability to deter and defend against cyber attacks on Department of War and dual use targets, including through the most comprehensive overhaul of U.S. Cyber Command since it was started 15 years ago. The plan shifts away from traditional service models and integrates the U.S. Cyber Command more closely with the military branches. And the urgency is clear. Chinese state-sponsored hackers, like we saw with the Volt and Salt typhoons over the past couple of years, continue to infiltrate U.S. critical infrastructure. That means power grids, water systems and telecommunications networks. They use stealthy tactics to hide in plain sight. Over the past few years, campaigns linked to the Chinese Communist Party have targeted U.S. telecoms and transportation. Foreign adversaries like China and Russia and Iran, they're probing and testing and challenging our systems, I would say by the nanosecond. Not even enough to say daily, every single second, they're seeking any opportunity they can to degrade our command control, disrupt our operations, steal our most sensitive information. Our adversaries are using the cyber domain as part of their multifaceted campaigns to degrade U.S. and allied interests. Threats in cyberspace are currently growing faster than we can scale our actions. And Cyber Command is already proving its value. They play key roles in operations like Midnight Hammer and Absolute Resolve, which saw the decimation of Iran's nuclear sites and contributed to the capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. What Cyber Comm 2.0 is really going to bring is advanced and specialized training that will allow us to both compete and really plan to outpace China. As Chinese cyber threats grow more aggressive, the Pentagon says that Cyber Comm 2.0 is no longer optional. It's essential to winning the next war before it starts. Reporting by Jack Bradley, NTD News.