The United States Air Force serves as the most technologically advanced service in the world. It is made up of elements of the United States Air Force, active duty, and the Air National Guard, Air Force Reserves, as well as other reserve elements. It is the premier armed aerial uniformed service in the entire world. It was previously part of the United States Army prior to World War II, and has been its own service since 1947. There are approx. 328 thousand personnel on active duty, and an additional 117 thousand in the reserves and 106 thousand in the Air National Guard. All together there is just over a half million personnel ready and willing to serve their country.
Because of the state of the economy and budget the Air Force is currently experiencing a reduction in force, the personnel on active duty will be reduced by about 17 thousand members, mainly through attrition and retirement, but some members will be encouraged to retire or go to the reserves.
The Air Force is deployed worldwide, and despite the current reduction leading to the smallest force since Pearl Harbor in 1941, the duties of the Air Force only continue to be expanded and added to. The Air Force has adopted the responsibility to help protect against Cyber Terrorism, they have adopted the airwaves and computer Internet traffic as a duty and service. The Air Force has aggressively pursued all different avenues of tracking and monitoring the Internet, and has been successful in designing and implementation of the first of its kind Internet defense system. Much of the current activity is highly classified, but it has become a central tenant of their overall mission, cyber terrorism has been defined by the FBI as “any politically motivated, preplanned and premeditated attack against computer programs, computer systems, computer information or data with results in or could potentially result in violence against non combative targets,”
The new mission statement covering Cyber Terrorism Air Force Duties was implemented in December 2005, and includes the new Cyber Terrorism in the main Air Force mission. The Mission now states as “to maintain global United States interests in the Air, Space and Cyberspace. Today’s world is fast paced and the Air Force remains ready to fight in the new age.