Why Does The Air Force Spend Twice As Much To Hack Than To Deflect Threats?

The House approved legislation that breaks out $13.4 million for Air Force cyberattack operations and $5.6 million for efforts to defend the service's networks. But those numbers likely underrepresent cyber offense and especially cyber defense spending, some military budget analysts say.

The problem with cyber funding -- governmentwide -- is that it's hard to define what cyber is, they note. "What they are splitting out here is really just a portion of what they are doing for cyber offense and defense," said Todd Harrison, director of defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "I think it's the part that's more focused on specific adversaries around the world."

The House’s version of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act would spend a total of $67 million on Cyber Command offensive and defensive activities. The command oversees all Defense Department cyber operations. "I expect that if you did a true accounting of what DOD is spending on cyber, it would be in the billions" of dollars, Harrison said.