To meet the demands of a digital age, the U.S. military must recruit and train new cyber warriors. Traditional physical standards excessively and avoidably restrict the pool of qualified candidates for cyber warfare roles. Information warriors operating in the cyber domain are a distinct class of warfighter. Recruiting requirements should reflect this reality.
A Brief History of Military Physical Readiness Standards
The U.S. armed forces have always emphasized physical readiness. While early standards were informal, physical fitness was never ignored. The revolutionary minutemen were hand-picked for the “enthusiasm, reliability, and physical strength” necessary for the Continental Army’s guerrilla tactics. Similarly, the U.S. military academies have always emphasized physical training, and 19th-century generals prioritized the ability of infantrymen to march, build fortifications, attack, and evade enemy combatants.
As the decades wore on, the military increasingly formalized its standards. However, information warriors, including spies, often were held to different standards than battlefront foot soldiers. During World War II, the thousands of women who volunteered for military intelligence roles in the Signal Intelligence Service were exempt from the usual physical readiness standards.1 These analysts were often, although not always, stateside and deskbound.
Like intelligence analysts of prior eras, the best candidates for cyber warfare today may look different from “traditional” service members. Yet, military recruiting guidelines do not reflect this, and the consequences are not trifling. As of August 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) cyber workforce was 24 percent below requirements – yet that deficit may be avoidable. Overall, less than one-quarter of young Americans are deemed eligible to join the military. But in an era of ascendant cyber warfare, some of the “normal” reasons for ineligibility, like poor physical fitness or certain physical disabilities, are outmoded.
Despite DoD having emphasized the importance of recruiting and retaining cyber warriors, current trends suggest that it could face severe shortages in the event of a major information attack or declaration of war. There was no need to recruit women for intelligence billets before World War II, but the war drastically increased the demand for codebreakers. If the U.S. military wants to stay ahead of its adversaries, it must invest in nontraditional cyber warriors now, not after the onset of hostilities.
Reassessing Physical Standards
Physical fitness has long been the bedrock of a prepared and effective fighting force. But the predigital world was a fundamentally different one, and assumptions about what makes a “good” cyber warrior must be reevaluated. To be sure, physical standards still play a vital role in warfare. Modern combat arms should continue to demand high physical standards. However, DoD has indicated that physical fitness for every service member “is essential for operational readiness.” Indeed, operational readiness traditionally required that every soldier be ready and able to deploy to a combat zone to support the mission, regardless of specialty. This has included cyber warriors, who may never see active combat on a physical battlefield but still have been required to deploy and operate on bases outside of the United States.
However, the technology used in cyber warfare is not reliant on physical strength. Most cyber warriors currently operate from the relative security of the United States where technical machinery is better protected from hostile actors. Consequently, cyber warriors do not have the same physical demands as service members in other specialties. Failing to modify the physical standards for cyber warriors risks elevating aesthetic over function.
It might seem easier to use DoD civilian personnel or contractors in cyber roles instead of changing physical standards, but this misses a key point: cyberwarfare is still warfare. In these virtual spaces, human lives are still at stake, necessitating tough choices to safeguard national interests. These are inherently military functions that the armed forces cannot delegate.
Better Talent in a Competitive Market
The physical fitness requirements for cyber warriors should change only in accordance with the needs and expectations of the role. A standard better aligned with DoD’s current cyber needs would create a more competitive market position for recruiters.
Individuals with cyber expertise who were previously disqualified may be eligible candidates under a new scheme. In 2020, 18 percent of the 34 million young Americans ages 17–24 were documented as ineligible for military service, based on weight or medical and physical health only. If the Navy were to adopt new fitness requirements, it could have 6 million new candidates to assess for cyber talent. Recruiters need to expand the talent pool if the United States wants to access the best cyber warriors.
Recruitment is also difficult because the military must compete with the private sector. In an already tight labor market, the military is further constraining recruitment efforts with physical fitness standards that do not align with actual job requirements. Aligning the recruitment pool with congruent job requirements would open a larger pool of recruits from hackathons, tech conferences, and university computer science departments. As in any sector, increasing the number of eligible candidates will increase the odds of successful recruitment.
Despite recruiting benefits, one might be concerned by how such a change could affect morale, uniformity, and cohesion, particularly among those who must continue to meet the traditional physical fitness requirements. This is not a new anxiety, and it is one that militaries have had to overcome many times before, most recently as it relates to racial and gender diversity. Any change in group dynamics will require careful and purposeful leadership. Army Major Alexander Cox, in his examination of unit cohesion and morale at the Command and General Staff College, found “that esprit de corps is the one major entity that can transcend the problems of race and prejudice.” In this case, effective leadership would help service members understand that warriors have different roles, skills, and abilities. Future conflicts will involve cyberspace, where physical ability matters little, and military readiness must evolve. Leaders will have to play an important role in shifting perceptions to align with a multi-battlefront reality such that esprit de corps can transcend the prejudice of physical diversity.
Embracing Specialization in the Cyber Pipeline
Currently, most cyber billets are subject to mandatory rotation, meaning cyber warriors may be rotated into different roles just as they hit their stride. The rotation system adversely affects cyber retention by removing experts “just when they have mastered the complexities of the cyber mission.” This practice is not reflective of the highly specific technical skills and requirements of a cyber warrior. Cyber is a specialty that is “far too specialized, costly, and lengthy to cycle individuals out every two to three years.” If cyber billets included exemptions for service members who are not eligible to serve in other roles, the mandatory rotation problem could be mitigated.
To further address the issue, the recruitment pipeline for cyber warriors should follow that of other specialized career tracks, such as the Judge Advocate General’s Corp (JAG) and the Medical Corps. The armed forces must accept pipeline insularity to build a cadre of elite cyber warriors capable and ready to combat existing and emerging threats. The cyber community should, therefore, have a special training and career progression without mandatory staffing rotations, like how JAGs are generally siloed to legal work. This would help Cyber Command’s ongoing retention issues, address the shortfall in cyber warfare leaders with operational experience, and allow for more flexible and targeted recruiting. Tactics and strategy also would benefit by having technically proficient cyber officers lead in the cyber domain. Recruiting, empowering, and retaining top-tier cyber talent would ensure the United States can maintain dominance in cyberspace.
A Different Kind of Warrior
In a world where keystrokes can be more dangerous than cannons, the skills required by information warriors are changing. Failing to adapt the military’s standards to an evolving cyber warfare environment is a strategic oversight that DoD can ill afford. The Secretary of Defense has broad legal authority to set the minimum physical standards, and pilot programs could be rolled out to gauge effectiveness before any policy changes are made.
Modern American life and digital technology are inextricably linked. An enemy skilled in cyber warfare could dismantle U.S. infrastructure, creating destruction and chaos with only a computer. To fight back, the United States must have cyber warriors who are more adept at system exploitation, denial operations, and system lateral movements than push-ups.
1. George R. Thompson, Dixie R. Harris, Pauline M. Oakes, and Dulaney Terrett, The Signal Corps: The Test (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1957), 204.
