How Computer Warfare Is Becoming Part of the Pentagon’s Arsenal

The United States used cyberweapons in Venezuela to take power offline, turn off radar and disrupt hand-held radios, all to help U.S. military forces slip into the country unnoticed early this month, according to American officials.

It was part of a renewed effort to integrate computer warfare into real-world operations.

The military has often used cyberweapons in discrete operations — like damaging Iran’s nuclear centrifuges by altering their functioning or taking a Russian troll farm offline — but the Pentagon has been working to find new ways to fuse computer network warfare with the rest of the military arsenal.

The Pentagon tested the approach in Venezuela and during strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last year.

In an interview, Katherine E. Sutton, the Pentagon’s top cyberpolicy official, declined to discuss Venezuela or other recent operations, but said the military was focused on how to integrate cybereffects into broader military operations. She said those capabilities had been used alongside traditional military power to “successfully layer multiple effects” on the battlefield.

“The integrated approach represents the future of cyberwarfare,” Ms. Sutton said.

The goal, she said, is to seamlessly weave those capabilities into broader military operations to enable more precise strikes, degrade an adversary’s ability to command its forces and support the U.S. military as it maneuvers on a battlefield.

“Since cyber is inherently a domain of information, we can disrupt the adversary’s decision-making cycle and create windows of opportunity for conventional forces to exploit — for example, degrading an adversary’s command and control and helping achieve an information advantage,” she added.