Warrant Officers To Play Vital Roles in Future Cyberspace Operations

U.S. Air Force officials envision a bright future for warrant officers in the realm of cyberspace operations.  

During a panel discussion on synchronizing and integrating cyber effects in defending the Pacific theater at TechNet Indo-Pacific 2024, Col. Joshua Rockhill, commander of the 688th Cyberspace Wing, said the addition of the warrant officers will drastically help the Air Force’s operational abilities in several ways. 

“It’s vital, because honestly, we have so much turnover, and I’m asking 19-year-olds to do things that may be on the outside, 29, 39 and 49-year-olds do with a lot of degrees, and it’s hard to keep them once they learn it for cause, and I’d love to have a warrant [officer] there to help sort of bridge that gap,” Rockhill said.

“The other thing that’s the terrain of complexity, not taking anything away from the Overseas Contingency Operations and Defensive Cyberspace Operations force,” Rockhill added. “It’s hard, but when you’re on that terrain every day, there’s a lot of bits and bytes moving, and you have to figure that out. And I think warrant officers would be extremely important to that.” 

Rockhill said that with this addition also comes a small cultural change and training within the Air Force. 

“I don’t even know what I’d do with a warrant officer in the Air Force right now,” Rockhill said. “What do I call them? Mr.? Mrs.? I don’t know. I’m literally going to go through training soon to learn what I do, and I think that’s fascinating to us. We’ll have a little bit of growth opportunity, but [we] look forward to relying on them technically and operationally.”

The Air Force announced months ago that it would reintroduce the position of warrant officers to attend to operational problems. This development came before the U.S. Army announced plans to develop data warrant officers within its own ranks. They will serve in several roles, including technical experts, functional leaders and risk managers, to increase the efficiency in their groups. This comes after the branch discontinued the warrant officer position in 1958 after officials decided to develop two other positions, senior master sergeant and chief master sergeant ranks, that would take on the tasks that were addressed by warrant officers, according to the Air Force Public Affairs division. 

Applications were open to the public in April and May, and board members selected top applicants in June. Those individuals will begin their training this fall or early next year. 

TechNet Indo-Pacific is organized by AFCEA International and the AFCEA Hawaii Chapter. SIGNAL Media is the official media of AFCEA International.