Electronic surveillance

When might Cyber Command and the NSA split? Good question.

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.”