Proposal for Cyber Force study is watered down in final defense bill

The plan to consider establishing a separate cyber military service has been diluted in a compromise version of the annual defense policy bill, likely halting any momentum for the idea.

The final National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2025, released on Saturday, scraps much of the language proposed earlier this year by the House and Senate to require the Pentagon to commission an independent study focused solely on creating a U.S. Cyber Force as a potential seventh military branch dedicated to digital warfare.

Gone is the call for an outside analysis by the nonprofit National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine centered entirely on a new service, as well as many of the specific questions that needed to be addressed as part of that examination. 

While the measure does include a mandate for the Academy to look at the “feasibility and advisability of establishing” a cyber branch, it is no longer the study’s primary goal. Instead, the legislation would require it to conduct an “evaluation of alternative organizational models for the cyber forces of the Armed Forces.” 

It’s unclear how that would differ from a previously congressionally ordered evaluation of the current cyber enterprise and different models for how cyber personnel should be trained and equipped, including the impact of establishing a uniformed cyber branch. That effort, known as the Section 1533 study, was due to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austing last June. DOD gave the task to the RAND Corporation, and while the think tank has completed its work, the department won’t make any decisions based on its findings until next year.

Notably, the $895 billion NDAA also does not include a due date for the new proposed study. That is significant because the Department of Defense has a finite pool of money to complete the avalanche of reports lawmakers assign it every year; no due date means the review will move to the bottom of the DOD’s to-do list.

The final language is a win for the Pentagon, which earlier this year appealed to policymakers to remove the study completely, as well as U.S. Cyber Command. Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who heads the command and the National Security Agency, has publicly and privately spoken out against the idea of a new service, arguing Cyber Command is revamping how its digital warriors operate with an internal study.

Conversely, the outcome likely will enrage the study’s proponents, some of whom believe a cyber-specific military branch is inevitable — especially as Russia and China work to grow and mature their own digital corps and race to gain the edge on new technologies like artificial intelligence.

A key consequence of the watered down NDAA language is that the Pentagon can cite the provision, even with its more general focus, to fend off calls next year for a cyber force study.

After back-to-back years of legislative losses, lawmakers could consider lobbying President-elect Donald Trump once he is sworn back into office. Trump, and former Vice President Mike Pence, were the main catalysts for Congress to establish the U.S. Space Force in 2019 as the first new branch of the U.S. military in 72 years.

The details of the final NDAA, hammered out in recent weeks by the House and Senate Armed Services committees, was unveiled ahead of a potential vote in the House this week. 

From there, it will move on to the Senate for final passage and then to the president’s desk to be signed into law.