Organizing for War-Winning AI: Combine AI with Cyber Command

05/12/2026
By Ed Timperlake

“Trustworthy AI” was the research focus of Dr. Jeannette Wing’s presentation at the United States Naval Academy’s 2022 Michelson Lecture. Dr. Wing serves as Executive Vice President for Research at Columbia University and formerly was Corporate Vice President of Research at Microsoft Corporation.

Dr. Wing’s research addressed the trustworthiness of artificial intelligence. She examined the rapid growth in AI deployment across critical domains that directly affect human lives, and focused on mounting concerns about whether AI decisions can be trusted to be correct, reliable, fair, and safe—especially under adversarial attack.

She framed the challenge for the United States Navy within the context of the advancing information revolution and its centrality to fighting and winning in any future combat engagement. Dr. Wing underscored that “Computer science is not computer programming. Thinking like a computer scientist means more than being able to program a computer. It requires thinking at multiple levels of abstraction.”

Now, four years later, Cornell University’s AI Initiative, launched in 2021, offers a compelling framework for understanding the full scope of AI’s research utility:

“Artificial intelligence at Cornell is both a field of study and a powerful tool that shapes how we conduct research, teach, and support the university.”

Combining Dr. Wing’s insights on trustworthiness with Cornell’s bifurcation of AI into pure research and applied utility functions offers a productive framework for addressing the full spectrum of AI advancement.

Theoretical AI and Applied AI: A Lesson from Physics

A clarifying analogy emerges from physics. AI research and its applications mirror the distinction between Theoretical Physics and Applied Physics—and the implications for warfighting technology are significant. AI may not carry the revolutionary finality of E=MC² leading to Hiroshima, but its power and impact are world-altering. Querying AI itself on this distinction yielded cogent and practical examples:

Theoretical Physics

Theoretical physics develops mathematical models and fundamental explanations for how the universe works, focusing on concepts, equations, and predictions. Examples include:

  • General Relativity
  • Quantum Mechanics
  • String Theory
  • Quantum Field Theory

Theoretical physicists characteristically:

  • Derive equations
  • Build simulations
  • Predict phenomena before experiments confirm them
  • Work extensively with advanced mathematics

Applied Physics

Applied physics takes physical principles and uses them to solve engineering and technological problems. Examples include:

  • Radar systems
  • Semiconductors
  • Lasers
  • Nuclear reactors
  • Hypersonics
  • AI-enabled sensors
  • Navigation systems such as MAGNAV/APNT
  • Aerospace systems such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

Applied physicists work across:

  • Defense
  • Aerospace
  • Energy
  • Telecommunications
  • Medical imaging
  • Quantum computing

An applied physicist might use electromagnetic theory to improve drone detection, sensor fusion, autonomous targeting, and electronic warfare.

This template translates directly to AI. Theoretical AI and Applied AI represent distinct but mutually reinforcing domains. Applied inside the Department of Defense, this distinction can have immediate and decisive warfighting consequences.

Place AI in U.S. Cyber Command

Just as the Manhattan Project fused theoretical physics, embodied by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, with forceful practical engineering under General Leslie Groves, combining Cyber Command with top-level AI research into a unified four-star command may prove to be a synergistic and operationally focused unity of purpose for this new era of AI-enabled warfare.

United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) is the U.S. military command responsible for conducting and coordinating cyber operations for the Department of Defense. Established in 2009 and headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, it focuses on three core missions:

  • Defending Department of Defense networks
  • Supporting military operations worldwide through cyber capabilities
  • Defending the United States against significant cyber threats

The defensive dimension of Cyber Command centers on protecting information integrity and the perpetual encryption competition: can we break our adversaries’ encryption while protecting our own? Before the atomic bomb, it was the brilliance of code-breakers—operating across both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters—that gave the United States and its allies a decisive battle-winning edge.

The Current Organizational Framework: CDAO and JADC2

AI currently sits organizationally within the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO). The CDAO now serves as the central AI coordination office for the Pentagon. As of 2025, the office was realigned under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)).

The principal applied AI engine remains Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), which aims to connect:

  • Aircraft
  • Ships
  • Satellites
  • Ground forces
  • Cyber assets
  • AI systems

All of these capabilities are being fused into a unified “kill web” way of fighting representing a substantial advantage over the People’s Liberation Army and its forces.

Embedding AI within the emerging U.S. kill web architecture, developed and protected by Cyber Command, is a strategically sound move. Kill webs involve fighting at the speed of light within a multi-domain payload utility function connecting sensors and shooters across platforms for target acquisition and engagement.

The value of information, what the Navy once called “the poop”, remains paramount. Maintaining laser focus on the quality, trustworthiness, and integrity of AI-assisted information flowing into life-and-death decision-making at every level of engagement demands a rigorous quality assurance process. A fused AI/Cyber Command can provide exactly that.

Conclusion: A Combat-Focused Command for the AI Age

Elevating AI to the four-star level within Cyber Command does not require creating a new four-star billet.

Rather, it involves combining Dr. Wing’s prescient concerns about AI trustworthiness with Cornell’s elegantly simple AI mission statement to establish a synergistic, mutually reinforcing command, one that is combat-focused and built for always fighting and winning.

Ed Timperlake led the creation of the TASCFORM multi-attribute utility function mathematical model for the Office of Net Assessment and the CIA.