When might Cyber Command and the NSA split? Good question

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By: Mark Pomerleau 

This is the second part of a series exploring the future of Cyber Command. For previous installments, see part one.

Already tasked with making Cyber Command a full unified combatant command, national security leaders are working on a separate, but parallel effort: splitting of the dual hat relationship between Cyber Command and NSA.

There is no timeline either mandated or charted for a split.

Congress, however, has outlined specific metrics DoD, Cyber Command and NSA must meet in order for the split to occur. These include ensuring each organization has sufficient operational infrastructure to operate independently, guaranteeing the missions of each won’t be impacted by the division and requiring the cyber mission force achieves full operational capability, among others.

A Pentagon spokesman said in a written statement to Fifth Domain that the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, in consultation with the director of national intelligence, “continue to consider potential recommendations on when timing and conditions would be appropriate to terminate the arrangement, consistent with the requirements in section 1642 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2017, and statements in the report accompanying the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017.”

Some in Congress have not seen the same sense of urgency from the Trump administration to split the NSA and Cyber Command as exhibited by the Obama administration. Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone’s nomination Feb. 13 to lead both agencies shows that the Trump administration is not using the retirement of current commander and director Adm. Michael Rogers’s to split the dual hat arrangement as some in the national security community had expected.

“The longer there’s that dual hat relationship the more potential there is to exacerbate some of those potential disadvantages that we’re seeing,” Joseph Kirschbaum, the director of defense capabilities and management at the Government Accountability Office told Fifth Domain. He referenced advantages and disadvantages of the dual hat arrangement outlined in an August GAO report.