U.S. Air Force leaders working on the nascent cyber command believe there will be a "huge" need for contracted services to support the embryonic effort as it faces personnel, technology and funding headwinds.

Still, plans are undetermined and genuine, robust budgets remain years away as officials have until at least next October to identify programs, and until October 2009 before the command must be fully operational (DAILY, Oct. 19).

"There's going to be a huge contracting requirement," said Maj. Gen. Charles Ickes II, Air National Guard special assistant to the deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements.

"I don't think anyone can tell you how big," he told the Northern Virginia chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's Air Force information technology conference Dec. 5.

Leading issues entail situational awareness over space assets like satellites and communications links, as well as the ability to quickly collect, analyze and diffuse information about them, according to officials. "Preservation" of space-related capabilities also will be a major concern.

"We've still got a ways to go in the defensive counter-space mindset and building the equipment we need to know what's happened and when," said Brig. Gen. Jay Santee, vice commander of 14th Air Force for air forces strategic-space.

All year, top Air Force leaders have stressed the need for greater situational awareness over space assets after China obliterated one of its own satellites in a demonstration in January. Before the United States could take action against an adversary, officials must know whether space-related assets were attacked, by whom and when - or whether there was an IT glitch, weather or another anomaly, service officials have said.

In the end, the United States must change how it views space - from a "peaceful" realm to a battlefield mentality - since communications and imagery satellites are more vulnerable than before while the military and intelligence communities rely on them even more, Air Force leaders say.

"Almost all of our lethality on the battlefield comes from space," Santee said.

Ickes, Santee and Col. Anthony Buntyn, the cyber command vice chief who is expecting his first star, said the Air Force will look to industry to provide "tools" for "real-time" processing and dissemination of attack information. Currently, retasking of space assets takes about a week after data is culled and presentations for the chain of command are created.

Furthermore, cyber command also will entail the retraining of 30,000-40,000 Air Force personnel and establishment of an attractive career field, all of which is expected to take as long as a decade. Validated billets, let alone funded and staffed positions, measure in mere hundreds so far.