The unit, established in August, will be launching the San Antonio-based cybersecurity facility by the end of the year, according to speeches given at the 2009 Global Warfare Symposium.

The commander of the unit, Major General Richard Webber, said that the cybersecurity center was still working to understand the scope of cyberwarfare operations.

The San Antonio cybersecurity center will occupy more than 50 000 ft.², and will provide much-needed cyberwarfare functionality for a unit that is currently limited in its operations, Weber said. "We have limited ability to monitor various 'types' and we have the ability to push 'patches', but it is not a war fighting operation", he warned.

Initially, the cybersecurity center will be used to develop cyberwarfare basic defense tactics, and initial command and control functions. However, it will not be fully completed until the end of 2010, and the 24th Air Force will not be announcing the scope of its cyberwarfare operations until early next year.

However, the Air Force is clearly getting tooled up on cybersecurity. A procurement document posted on the federal government's procurement website indicated that the Air Force wishes to buy 2200 PlayStation 3 game consoles to build a Linux-based research supercomputer for its research center in Rome, NY.

"The objective of the architectural studies is to determine the best fit for implementation of various applications", said a document explaining the purpose of the system. "An example would be determining additional software and hardware requirements for Advanced Computing Architectures (ACA) and High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) applications."

The 24th Air Force is the first unit dedicated to cyberspace and cybersecurity operations. It absorbed the Air Force Information Operations Center, and the 67th Network Warfare Wing. The new unit effectively unites space and cyberspace operations within a single command.