ALAMO ACE — The Air Force Reserve in partnership with Air Forces Cyber, officially 16th Air Force, will stand up its first Reserve cyber operations squadron dedicated solely to offensive cyber operations when the new year begins in January.
The news comes as the Air Force Reserve also stands up a fourth Combat Communications Squadron, which will be an expeditionary unit charged with getting networks up and running anywhere in the world in about 72 hours.
A senior Air Force official at the Alamo ACE conference told Breaking Defense both initiatives grew out of the fact that operational commanders have been asking for greater cyber and comms capability, while there’s been a steady stream of cyber operators leaving active duty, but who could still play a role in Air Force cyber operations.
“These are highly trained cyber professionals that cost a lot of money to get to the level of training that they need to be at,” said Col. Joshua Garrison, commander of the 960th Cyberspace Wing, 10th Air Force. “We’ve invested all this money and training into them; they want to continue to do these cool missions, but for whatever reason they don’t do the full 20 years.”
The requirement for the offensive Reserve force came from the 16th Air Force in 2023. The Reserve stood up a small detachment as a test unit and a proof of concept to see if former active-duty offensive operators could remain fully proficient on a part-time basis. Over a 12-month trial, they determined training and proficiency requirements, unit structure, and manning.
After the detachment hit its milestones, the Reserve pushed a formal package forward to convert it into a permanent unit. That package was approved this fall, activating the 98th Cyberspace Operations Squadron, which will report up to 960th Cyberspace Wing and be based at Joint Base San Antonio.
The 98th COS will be relatively small, about 50 personnel, but with specific skills in offensive cyber operations, per Garrison. Every airman is expected to arrive fully qualified from regular Air Force units; there is no “off the street” pipeline, in part because offensive operators take years to grow, according to Garrison, who is dual-hatted as a recruiter for the new group.
What, exactly, those offensive missions look like remains classified given their offensive nature, according to the colonel.
Fourth Combat Comms Squadron For Global Deployments
On the communications side, the Reserve is taking a similar approach with what it describes as small, capable units that can plug directly into the active-duty enterprise. Today, the 960th Cyberspace Wing already oversees three Reserve Combat Communications Squadrons: the 23rd Combat Communications Squadron at Travis AFB, the 35th Combat Communications Squadron at Tinker AFB, and the 55th Combat Communications Squadron at Robins AFB.
All three are standalone, unit-equipped expeditionary communications units. Unlike Reserve units that share missions and aircraft with an active-duty counterpart, these squadrons own their equipment and have their own deployment taskings.
“Combat comms is expeditionary communications,” said Garrison. “They’re standalone units, so they’re not associated with any active-duty units. They’re unit-equipped; they can deploy out anywhere in the world within 72 hours and have [communications] equipment stood up and ready to go.”
Now the Air Force Reserve is moving to add a fourth Combat Communications Squadron, along with an existing combat comm support squadron, to form a more robust group
“There’s a gap with Air Combat Command as to how they’re plugging in the combat comms during what we call Reserve Component Periods,” said Garrison. “With only three squadrons, aligning rotations and coverage has been a challenge. Just having three, it’s an odd number, and so we need that fourth one to fill in that gap.”
The new squadron is planned to stand up Oct. 1 of next year, the start of fiscal year 2027, after the Air Force finishes its basing study to determine where it will be located, according to Garrison. It will start with about 100 airmen, growing to roughly 150, mirroring the existing Reserve combat comm units.
CORRECTED 12/5/2025 at 12:00pm to clarify the 960th Cyberspace Wing is under the 10th Air Force.