Katherine Sutton, the assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy and principal cyber advisor to the secretary of defense, said June 4 that Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) 2.0 should not be viewed as an alternative to establishing a dedicated cyber service, but rather as a foundational component of any future cyber force structure.
The CYBERCOM 2.0 initiative, unveiled in November 2025, overhauled how U.S. Cyber Command develops and generates cyber forces. It created dedicated career tracks and specialized units for specific missions.
Speaking at TechNet Cyber in Baltimore, Md., Sutton pushed back against what she described as a persistent misconception within the cyber community that policymakers must choose between CYBERCOM 2.0 and the creation of a standalone cyber service.
“We really need CYBERCOM 2.0 to build the warrior of the future, and it’s not a competition,” she said. “We all want to build the best force we can, and so making sure that we move forward as fast as we can at getting that talent is a key priority for the department right now.”
Two organizations are evaluating the potential to establish a dedicated military cyber service.
The fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act mandated a study of alternative organizational models for military cyber elements, including the potential creation of a unified cyber force. The legislation directed the National Academies to evaluate the feasibility and necessity of a dedicated cyber service. That study is ongoing.
Outside government, the Commission on Cyber Force Generation – established by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in partnership with the Cyber Solarium Commission 2.0 – is examining options for creating a future U.S. Cyber Force.
Sutton said that CYBERCOM 2.0 is designed to support whichever organizational model policymakers ultimately choose.
“The CYBERCOM 2.0 model marks a fundamental transformation designed to secure American dominance in a highly contested domain,” Sutton said. “The model prioritizes true domain mastery by shifting away from a compliance-based generalist model to one that fosters career-long operational expertise.”
She explained that the model creates dedicated pathways for personnel to become world-class experts in critical fields such as industrial control systems, cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and firmware reverse engineering.
“This framework injects agility into our force structure to dynamically allocate talent and integrate emerging technologies at machine speed,” she said.
According to Sutton, the framework can function whether cyber operators remain within the military services or are eventually consolidated under a standalone cyber organization.
“Were developing a cyber assessment battery for evaluating the people coming into our force to make sure they have the right skills and aptitudes to be successful, and to further refine how we assign them to different work roles,” Sutton said. “Again, whether they’re coming from five services or civilian, it’s agnostic to that.”