Cyberspace conversations hope to build local partnership Published Sept. 24, 2009 By Maj. Kirstin Reimann Air Force Space Command Public Affairs PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Gen. C. Robert Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, spoke with 170 local community leaders at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort on Sept. 21. This community event was to initiate a community conversation on cyberspace and discuss how the military and community can work together to define and create a cyberspace roadmap. "This community conversation is important to us," said General Kehler. "We have the best community support in the country. We need people to think about cyberspace." Space and cyberspace have a natural relationship, he said. The overlapping of space and cyberspace creates a synergy more powerful than all the separate parts and pieces of space and cyberspace. "We need to sort through that intersection," he said. The best way to think about cyberspace is all the different components that comprise the Internet. Also, cyberspace can be described as an electronic domain analogous to a densely crowded urban area. "In cyberspace, we go shopping, go to the library, go to school, bank, travel, and talk to family. There are people who go about their every day business like us and those who are vandals, criminals and spies," General Kehler said. The Air Force has begun to address that problem through its decision to implement an operational organization, 24th Air Force, and to give responsibility for the overall management of Air Force Cyberspace to AFSPC, said General Kehler. As with its space mission, AFSPC's responsibility for cyberspace will be establishing cyberspace requirements and training, organizing and equipping the cyberspace force. "I don't know what that form will look like," said the general. "But, as with the establishment of the Air Force space mission years ago, the same great set of opportunities exists in cyberspace for Colorado Springs and the surrounding communities." Specifically, General Kehler mentioned that those opportunities encompass: intellectual support through possible symposiums and research and development: educational support in areas such as sponsorships, technical training, the U.S. Air Force Academy, Air Force Electronics Association, and the Space Foundation; economic support through aerospace and cyberspace companies, as well as the ability to recruit from the Reserves and National Guard. "It will take us a little while to get our feet on the ground," said General Kehler. "We will discover much as we go forward about what this really means for us, this command and the United States Air Force, and how we fit in with all the rest of the services bringing cyberspace capabilities in what will become a new command called United States Cyber Command. We will be providing a component to that command," he said. "I think the growth potential across all the services here is large. I look forward to working with all of you as we define that and come to rely on what has been a remarkable relationship that we have with all of you in Colorado Springs."