Generating and Retaining Premier Cyber Warriors

Cyber specialists have become as essential to modern warfare as pilots, submariners, and special operators. Yet the Pentagon continues to face a challenge that has plagued it for decades: generating and retaining enough highly skilled cyber personnel to meet growing operational demands.

In June, the Pentagon announced a plan to turn things around through the establishment of a new compensation program designed to reward military personnel who develop and maintain advanced cyber skills. Set to take effect in October, the Cyber Mastery Incentive Pay (C-MIP) plan reflects a growing recognition that cyber expertise is a strategic military capability that requires dedicated investment and retention efforts. Still, until the Pentagon adopts a force-generation model designed specifically for cyberspace — which could be enabled by the creation of a Cyber Force — programs like C-MIP can only partially address the military’s broader cyber workforce challenges.

The term force generation refers to the military’s ability to recruit, train, develop, and retain the personnel needed to conduct operations. In a 2022 report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Pentagon faces increasing competition from the private sector for top technical talent and that workforce gaps persist across some active-duty cyber career fields. The watchdog also noted that shortcomings in personnel tracking make it difficult to assess staffing shortages across specific cyber work roles. Moreover — and not particularly encouraging for proponents of C-MIP — the GAO observed that “the military services spent at least $160 million on cyber retention bonuses annually in fiscal years 2017 through 2021. However, officials have acknowledged that while the military services offer retention bonuses and special pays, they continue to experience challenges retaining qualified cyber personnel.”

Unlike some traditional military specialties, cyber expertise transfers directly into lucrative civilian careers, creating strong incentives for operators to end their service early. The new C-MIP program seeks to counter this trend by rewarding personnel who remain in demanding cyber roles and continue developing technical expertise. In effect, the Pentagon is beginning to treat cyber capabilities similarly to aviation, nuclear, and special operations specialties — fields where specialized skills are considered too strategically important to lose.

Previous approaches were largely service-specific, creating inconsistencies across the force. Federal watchdogs also raised concerns that pay rates did not adequately compensate highly skilled cyber troops. The new C-MIP initiative suggests senior defense leaders are pursuing a more standardized approach.

Compensation alone, however, cannot solve the military’s larger workforce challenge. The deeper issue is structural: the United States still lacks a dedicated service responsible for generating and sustaining the workforce needed to compete in cyberspace. Today, the military services are responsible for cyber force generation, but only within the context of their primary domains — land, sea, air, or space. As a result, cyber is often treated as an enabling function that supports those missions rather than as a warfighting domain that requires dedicated institutional focus, support, and cultural investment.

A dedicated U.S. Cyber Force would change that. Rather than viewing cyber capabilities through the lens of another service’s mission, a Cyber Force would focus exclusively on recruiting, training, certifying, and developing the personnel needed to conduct offensive and defensive cyber operations. Unlike incentive pay programs that primarily seek to retain existing personnel, a Cyber Force would address the workforce challenge at every stage of the talent pipeline. It could establish recruiting standards tailored to technically skilled candidates, develop specialized training and education programs, and create career paths designed specifically for cyber operators rather than relying on personnel systems built for other domains.

America’s adversaries are increasing their cooperation in the cyber domain as detailed in a new book by our colleagues. To better defend the United States in the cyber domain and enable more effective offensive operations, the United States needs to recruit, train, and retain worldclass cyber experts.  

The C-MIP program is a welcome step toward recognizing cyber expertise as the strategic military asset it is. If Washington hopes to compete effectively in cyberspace against increasingly capable adversaries, it must do more than create an incentive pay scheme. The United States needs a force generation model built specifically for cyberspace — one capable of attracting, developing, and retaining elite technical talent over the long term. A U.S. Cyber Force would provide that foundation.

Emmerson Overell is a project coordinator at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI), where she focuses on threats to U.S. national security in the Arctic, space, and cyberspace. Sophie McDowall is a senior research associate at CCTI, where she works on the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, federal cybersecurity policy, and emerging technologies.