As cyber threats escalate and evolve, the Department of Defense (DoD) faces the imperative of rethinking how cybersecurity is integrated into military operations. Cybersecurity must transition from being perceived as a peripheral concern—often relegated to technical support roles—to being treated as a fundamental component of strategic military operations.

In a time of accelerating threats and rapid technological shifts, the U.S. military should reconsider how it approaches force design in its modernization process. Force design represents the logical first step in force modernization—and it should be performed concurrently with development and employment, not sequentially as current doctrine suggests.