"If it’s a hurricane, [at the Defense Department], they’ve got the mission assignments. They know, 'OK, we’ve got to send people to fill sandbags,'" DHS's Jeanette Manfra explained. For cyber responses, she said, "that part is not mature enough."
The goal is to give the 6,200-strong Cyber Mission Force a common, compatible set of tools so they can act in cyberspace as a coordinated military unit.
While humans must stay in the loop for kinetic decisions, empowering drones to operate autonomously is a force multiplier.
“We haven’t deployed anyone, just to be clear,” Edwin Wilson said. “We’ll have a traditional prepare-to-deploy order, (and) the members and teams are on recall ready to go within hours.”