The Air Force’s Work To Create the Information Warfare Operations Center Advances

To position itself for Great Power Competition, the U.S. Air Force’s only information warfare numbered air force, or NAF, is evolving to better meet the threat from the People’s Republic of China, said Lt. Gen. Thomas Hensley, commander, 16th Air Force (AFCYBER), speaking at the AFCEA Alamo Chapter’s ACE event on November 19.

“I am going to mention the date of 2027,” Gen. Hensley said. “You can’t say that date too often because the Chinese have said they want to be militarily ready to lead the United States in a ‘regional conflict’ by then . . . That is what their planning marker is. So, there is a sense of urgency to make sure that we continue to posture ourselves as much as possible in all domains.”

In August, Gen. Hensley took command of 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber) from Lt. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, who retired from service after 34 years. Gen. Hensley, who had been the deputy, is the third commander of the five-year-old 16th Air Force. This came as the NAF was restructuring again to support the Air Force with information warfare for the future environment.

Part of that evolution is the establishment of the Information Warfare Operations Center (IWOC), the foundation of which is the 616 Operations Center, located at Joint Base San Antonio-Lakeland that coordinates the operations of about 180 units performing cyber, electronic warfare, weather intelligence, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The IWOC, which was announced last year and is becoming more of a reality this year, will operate and defend the Air Force Information Network, or AFIN, conduct command and control (C2) of forces, and provide global situational awareness and insights. The center will perform operational-level C2 and coordinate operations for information warfare (IW) effects and outcomes, Gen. Hensley explained. The IWOC will sync these activities across the service’s air components and wings.

It is all about getting the right mix of IW across the service’s operations, how it is done, what should be disrupted, and what is revealed or concealed against the adversary, he stated.

Already, the IWOC has a current concept of operations that focuses on several lines of effort supporting operations around the globe, the general told SIGNAL Media in a follow-up email. 

“As capability and capacity increases, expect this growth to be captured in future plans,” he said. “Currently, the IWOC works closely with some of the air components to provide informational power that they can leverage within their operations to support key efforts.”

According to the commander, their near-term milestones and goals include “standardizing existing processes that will increase efficiency in both time and product quality for our components; increasing the number of air components that we support; and integrating IW capabilities with both the interagency and our air components.”

And in a "crawl, walk, run" approach to building up the processes and operations of the IWOC, 16th Air Force leaders have started "quarterly syncs" with some of the Air Force’s major commands (MAJCOMs) operating around the world, with the goal of tying in IW with all of the commands.

“The plan was to have quarterly syncs with the air components, so we can, one, evaluate their operations, activities and investments from the previous quarter,” Gen. Hensley explained. “Did we do the right things? Did we send the right message? Did the adversary even know we were there? Did we move the needle in the right direction? Did we help deter, or did we go the wrong way? So, it is an assessment of how we did, taking those lessons learned and rolling it into the plan for the next quarter.”

So far, IWOC has worked First Air Force, 12th Air Force, the Pacific Air Forces, Air Force Global Strike Command, Air Mobility Command, Air Combat Command, Headquarters Air Force Checkmate and the Air Force Warfare Center, the commander indicated.

“The intent is to evolve, both from a participation aspect—with more participation from MAJCOMs and interagency—as well to evolve from an IW capability aspect,” Gen. Hensley stated. “And the IWOC will look to expand participation to all air components.”

In the future, IWOC will also coordinate with U.S. Air Forces Central, U.S. Air Forces In Europe-Air Forces Africa and Air Force Special Operations Command.

“The 616 OC looks forward to assisting the air components, U.S. Cyber Command and the interagency partners as it continues to provide and increase IW support,” Gen. Hensley noted.

The commander also shared that there is no decision yet about the future structure of AFCYBER.

For the last several months, senior Department of the Air Force leaders have considered how to elevate the cyber portions of the NAF to be a service-level component—as requested by Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall in February.

Currently, the entire 16th Air Force is a subcomponent of Air Combat Command.

The idea is to separate the five-year-old NAF into AFCYBER and AFCIC, or the Air Force Cyber Information Command. The leaders are grappling with how to handle the NAF’s authorities under Title 10 and Title 50 and what to separate.

“Originally the plan today was to talk about the future of the elevated AFCYBER and AFCIC, but that decision hasn't been made yet,” Gen. Hensley said. “We've had seniors get together on a couple of occasions to talk about what the future is, and every time they get together, there's black smoke that we see. I keep saying they are getting pretty close to a decision, and then there's no decision.”

The discussions are intense, which, for Gen. Hensley, reflects the role of the NAF.  “This just goes to reinforce the importance of the 16th Air Force, that we have our own senior leaders deliberating on the way forward of how to make this organization successful.”

Once the future roles of the NAF are worked out, leaders will be able to plan when the IWOC could reach full operating capability, the general said.