Cyber Operators Are Deployed in Place. The Pentagon Should Treat Them That Way

A cyber operator can spend a shift tracking an adversary halfway around the world, walk to the parking lot, and be home in time for dinner.

网络操作员可以花一个班次跟踪半个地球的对手，步行到停车场，然后及时回家吃晚饭。

There is no flight home, no demobilization, and no transition from an operational mission back to ordinary life.

没有航班回家，没有复员，也没有从作战任务过渡到正常生活。

The war zone is a commute away.

战区距离这里只有一段通勤路程。

That arrangement looks like one of the advantages of cyber warfare.

这种安排看起来像是网络战的优势之一。

It is also becoming one of its human costs.

这也正在成为其人力成本之一。

Bloomberg reported in August that as many as five people working at or alongside U.S. Cyber Command took their own lives in a five-week period in June and July this year, enough for defense officials to label it a suicide cluster.

彭博社 8 月报道称，今年 6 月和 7 月的五周内，美国网络司令部或与美国网络司令部一起工作的人员有多达 5 人自杀，足以让国防部官员将其标记为自杀群。

Officials have not established that the deaths are connected, and suicide rarely has a single cause, but Congress has taken notice.

官员们尚未确定这些死亡之间是否存在关联，而且自杀很少有单一原因，但国会已经注意到了。

Legislative proposals include more counselors and shorter waits for care.

立法提案包括增加辅导员和缩短护理等待时间。

These proposals treat the harm, but do not prevent it.

这些建议可以治疗伤害，但不能预防伤害。

The underlying condition is neither mysterious nor new.

潜在的情况既不神秘也不新鲜。

The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Pentagon to study the occupational resiliency of the Cyber Mission Force, the command’s operational arm.

2024 年国防授权法案指示五角大楼研究该司令部作战部门网络任务部队的职业弹性。

The study found the resources and programs available to these operators were inadequate and a risk to long-term personnel readiness .

研究发现，这些运营商可用的资源和计划不足，并且对长期人员准备工作构成风险。

It called for a framework to develop, manage, and assess prevention and treatment programs.

它呼吁建立一个框架来制定、管理和评估预防和治疗计划。

The implementation plan Congress required was never delivered.

国会要求的实施计划从未交付。

No prevention and treatment program would be enough on its own.

任何预防和治疗计划本身都是不够的。

The problem is structural.

问题是结构性的。

I deployed overseas in 2009, then served at Cyber Command from 2014 to 2022 as a judge advocate, reviewing operations and keeping roughly the same hours as the teams running them.

我于 2009 年部署到海外，然后从 2014 年到 2022 年在网络司令部担任法官辩护人，负责审查行动并与运营团队的工作时间大致相同。

I did not have the same operational experience, but much of the day was the same: short-notice recalls, inverted shifts, and the rule that nothing about work goes home.

我没有相同的运营经验，但一天的大部分时间都是一样的：临时通知的召回、倒班以及工作中的任何事情都不能回家的规则。

People assume deployment was harder.

人们认为部署更加困难。

Sure, deployment was hard, but it was also simple.

当然，部署很困难，但也很简单。

Everyone was there for the same reason and could focus on the mission, giving the days a singular purpose.

每个人都出于同样的原因来到这里，并且可以专注于使命，让每一天都有一个单一的目标。

Ordinary responsibilities largely disappeared or at least moved into the distant background: There was no caring for an aging loved one, managing family medical needs, making household decisions, or being available to all the people in your “normal life.” The deployed environment was built to support you to do your job.

普通的责任在很大程度上消失了，或者至少转移到了遥远的背景中：没有照顾年迈的亲人，没有管理家庭医疗需求，没有做家庭决定，也没有为“正常生活”中的所有人提供帮助。构建部署环境是为了支持您完成工作。

In some ways, that was liberating, although that might seem counterintuitive to most.

在某些方面，这是一种解放，尽管这对大多数人来说似乎违反直觉。

Deployment meant creating boundaries in life.

部署意味着在生活中创造界限。

Everyone knew you were away.

每个人都知道你不在。

Everyone around you was away as well.

你周围的人也都离开了。

Cyber operators do not have this separation.

网络运营商没有这种分离。

They work long and odd hours against adversaries, all while Cyber operators do not have this separation.

他们与对手进行长时间且奇怪的工作，而网络运营商却没有这种分离。

At Cyber Command, they work long and odd hours against adversaries across the globe while living their ordinary lives and returning home between missions.

在网络司令部，他们与全球各地的对手进行长时间且奇怪的工作，同时过着平凡的生活并在任务之间返回家园。

The movement between these worlds happens every day, sometimes more than once, with no physical distance marking the transition between the mission and a rush-hour commute back to ordinary life.

这些世界之间的移动每天都在发生，有时甚至不止一次，在执行任务和高峰时段返回正常生活之间没有物理距离的过渡。

A recall can pull an operator back into the mission hours later, while classification rules foreclose the ordinary form of decompression: describing the day to the people they love.

召回可能会让操作员在数小时后重新执行任务，而分类规则则排除了普通形式的减压：向他们所爱的人描述这一天。

The effects are not limited to the operators.

影响不仅限于运营商。

A child cannot understand why a parent missed the game for a war fought from a building minutes away.

孩子无法理解为什么父母会因为几分钟路程外的建筑物内发生的战争而错过比赛。

A parent who is home but often unavailable, in one form or another, does a quieter kind of damage.

父母在家但经常不在，以这种或那种形式，会造成一种更安静的伤害。

Gen.

将军

Joshua Rudd, who leads Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told the House Armed Services Committee in April that the command ran roughly 8,000 missions in 2025, a 25 percent increase over 2024 .

网络司令部和国家安全局负责人约书亚·拉德 (Joshua Rudd) 4 月份向众议院军事委员会表示，该司令部在 2025 年执行了大约 8,000 次任务，比 2024 年增加了 25%。

That surge came as the command supported sustained operations against Iran and in Venezuela , both high-visibility missions that make any request to pause and rest the force during them more fraught.

这次增兵是在该司令部支持针对伊朗和委内瑞拉的持续行动之际进行的，这两项任务都是引人注目的任务，因此任何在任务期间暂停和休息部队的请求都更加令人担忧。

Andrew Schoka, a former Army officer who served at the command, told the Record that its teams are essentially “deployed-in-place” continuously without defined reset cycles .

曾在该司令部服役的前陆军军官安德鲁·肖卡（Andrew Schoka）告诉《记录报》，该司令部的队伍基本上是连续“就地部署”的，没有明确的重置周期。

The context cuts both ways: it explains the tempo, and it is exactly the moment a reset requirement is hardest to grant.

上下文是双向的：它解释了节奏，而这正是重置要求最难满足的时刻。

This phenomenon is not unprecedented.

这种现象并非史无前例。

Researchers studying drone crews for the Air Force described them as being deployed-in-garrison , and Air Force medical researchers found exhaustion and clinical distress driven not only by what crews saw but by round-the-clock operations conducted near home.

研究空军无人机机组人员的研究人员将他们描述为部署在驻军中，空军医学研究人员发现，疲劳和临床痛苦不仅是由机组人员所看到的情况造成的，而且是由在家附近进行的全天候操作造成的。

The fixes came slowly, only after years of treating the problem clinically.

经过多年的临床治疗后，修复才慢慢出现。

The Air Force approved a combat-to-dwell policy for drone units in 2017 , then spent years without adequate personnel to carry it out.

美国空军于 2017 年批准了无人机部队的“战斗到驻扎”政策，但多年来却没有足够的人员来执行该政策。

Cyber operators inherited this condition without the fixes.

网络运营商继承了这种情况，但没有进行修复。

The parallel is not exact, and the differences are worth highlighting.

这种相似并不准确，差异值得强调。

Cyber operators are largely spared from the graphic imagery that marks drone operations, so the comparison cannot rest on that specific source of trauma.

网络操作员在很大程度上不受标记无人机操作的图形图像的影响，因此这种比较不能依赖于特定的创伤来源。

What does apply to both fields is the mechanism the research actually identified: distress produced not only by effects observed but by relentless tempo and the whiplash that comes with living in two very different worlds in the same day.

适用于这两个领域的是研究实际确定的机制：痛苦不仅是由观察到的影响产生的，而且是由无情的节奏和同一天生活在两个截然不同的世界所带来的鞭打造成的。

When a unit returns from deployment, a set of protections is triggered: restrictions on return to operations, reintegration programs, health screenings.

当部队从部署返回时，会触发一系列保护措施：返回作战的限制、重返社会计划、健康检查。

All of this keys off the orders that deployed the unit and brought it home.

所有这些都与部署该部队并将其带回家的命令无关。

A cyber operator runs the same kind of surge, sometimes for months, then walks to the car.

网络操作员会进行同样的操作，有时会持续数月，然后走到汽车旁。

No official demobilization triggers those protections.

官方复员不会触发这些保护措施。

The command has not been idle.

命令也没有闲着。

Gen.

将军

Rudd directed the service cyber chiefs to check in with him weekly on suicide prevention, and the units most affected were placed under a mandatory counseling period.

陆克文指示军种网络负责人每周与他一起检查预防自杀的情况，受影响最严重的单位也被置于强制咨询期。

The command has also embedded cleared providers in its own spaces through a partnership with Fort Meade’s Kimbrough clinic , giving operators back the hours that seeking care used to cost them.

该司令部还通过与米德堡金布罗诊所的合作，在自己的空间中嵌入了经过许可的医疗服务提供者，从而使操作人员能够节省过去寻求医疗费用的时间。

Two providers are in place, and the arrangement tops out at five, for a mission force of roughly 6,000 and a civilian and contractor workforce larger still.

两家供应商已就位，最多可容纳 5 家，可容纳约 6,000 人的任务部队以及更多的文职人员和承包商人员。

The program covers the military side.

该计划涵盖军事方面。

These responses are humane and necessary.

这些反应是人道且必要的。

They are also, by design, treatments for harm that has already occurred.

从设计上来说，它们也是对已经发生的伤害的治疗。

Two structural changes would address the load, and a third step can help families while they are pending.

两项结构性改变将解决这一负担，第三步可以在家庭悬而未决时为他们提供帮助。

First, the 2027 defense authorization should require reset conditions for the Cyber Mission Force: defined rest periods carrying the force of post-deployment dwell.

首先，2027 年国防授权应要求网络任务部队重置条件：规定的休息时间，以维持部署后的部队驻留。

That is the drone crew combat-to-dwell equivalent, with the manning it never received.

这就是无人机机组人员从战斗到居住的等效情况，但其人员配备从未得到过。

The obligation should bind even when a commander is short-handed.

即使指挥官人手不足，这一义务也应具有约束力。

This is not a new demand.

这并不是一个新的需求。

The 2024 study established the need; the department never delivered the plan, and the 2027 bill is the vehicle to convert that finding into a requirement.

2024 年研究确定了这一需求；该部门从未交付该计划，而 2027 年法案是将这一发现转化为要求的工具。

Second, the clinical response needs access to the information it currently lacks.

其次，临床反应需要获取目前缺乏的信息。

Adding more counselors will not solve the problem if those counselors lack the information to understand what the job involves.

如果辅导员缺乏了解工作内容的信息，那么增加更多的辅导员并不能解决问题。

Cleared providers are scarce.

经过批准的供应商很少。

Representative Sarah Elfreth, whose district borders Fort Meade, said the command faces a dearth of providers and access and pressed for National Defense Authorization Act language expanding access to cleared mental health providers.

与米德堡接壤的选区众议员莎拉·埃尔弗雷斯 (Sarah Elfreth) 表示，该司令部面临着医疗服务提供者和准入渠道的缺乏，并敦促制定《国防授权法案》的措辞，扩大对经批准的精神卫生服务提供者的准入范围。

The 2026 authorization, now law, directs the department to assign cleared behavioral health specialists to Cyber Command and the Cyber Mission Force and to run an initiative addressing the behavioral health challenges and work-related stresses the force faces.

2026 年的授权现已成为法律，指示该部门向网络司令部和网络任务部队指派经过许可的行为健康专家，并开展一项举措，解决部队面临的行为健康挑战和工作相关压力。

What has not followed is the funding and staffing needed to expand it.

随之而来的是扩大规模所需的资金和人员配置。

The embedded model already works.

嵌入式模型已经可以工作了。

Scaling it beyond five requires funded billets and enough providers to keep those positions filled by people who hold the credential and the clearance.

将其扩大到五个以上需要有资金支持和足够的供应商来让持有证书和许可的人来填补这些职位。

These changes run into the same constraint.

这些变化遇到了同样的限制。

Schoka observed that there are never enough qualified personnel to support every requirement.

Schoka 观察到，永远没有足够的合格人员来支持每一项要求。

Commanders are forced to rely on available personnel whether or not they need rest.

无论是否需要休息，指挥官都被迫依赖现有人员。

It is why the Air Force’s drone policy sat unexecuted for years, and it is why a reset mandate laid on a commander beset by manning shortfalls can yield paper compliance rather than actual recovery.

这就是为什么空军的无人机政策多年来没有得到执行，也是为什么对受人员短缺困扰的指挥官重新设定任务只能产生纸面上的合规性，而不是实际的恢复。

Gen.

将军

Rudd separately told Congress the force is insufficiently scaled for the threat it faces .

陆克文单独告诉国会，这支部队的规模不足以应对其面临的威胁。

A reset requirement without the people to honor it will be overcome by the first crisis.

如果人民不遵守重新设定的要求，第一次危机就会被克服。

At Cyber Command, there is always a crisis.

在网络司令部，危机始终存在。

A reset requirement should arrive with the manning to honor it, as well as the depth to absorb a surge.

重置要求应随人员配置以及吸收激增的深度一起到达。

A commander will answer that the adversary does not observe dwell.

指挥官会回答说对手没有观察停留。

Neither does the enemy of a deployed battalion, yet battalions still rotate because exhausted operators perform less effectively, and readiness is measured in years, not weeks.

已部署的营的敌人也没有，但营仍在轮换，因为精疲力尽的操作员表现不佳，而且准备状态是以几年而不是几周来衡量的。

Rest sustains the mission and helps prepare the force for missions that may come years from now.

休息可以维持任务，并帮助部队为数年后可能执行的任务做好准备。

A rest requirement protects servicemember health and preserves an operational effectiveness that outlasts any commander’s tenure.

休息要求可以保护军人的健康，并保持比任何指挥官任期更长的作战效率。

It should also reach beyond the uniformed force, and here the command’s problem is genuinely distinctive.

它也应该超出军装部队的范围，而这里指挥部的问题确实很独特。

The Cyber Mission Force is built from active duty, civilian, and contract personnel, and deployment-based protections were written around military orders that civilians and contractors never receive.

网络任务部队由现役人员、文职人员和合同人员组成，基于部署的保护是围绕平民和承包商从未收到的军事命令制定的。

A dwell construct modeled only on the uniformed rotation would exclude much of the very workforce carrying the load.

仅以统一轮换为模型的居住结构将排除大部分承担负载的劳动力。

Vehicles such as work-hour and premium-pay rules and Cyber Excepted Service authorities cover civilians, and the terms of the task orders that put contractors on the floor can reach them.

工作时间和加薪规则以及网络例外服务机构等工具涵盖了平民，而将承包商置于现场的任务订单条款也可以触及他们。

The requirement should support the entire community that actually does this work, or it will only protect a fraction of those who need it.

该要求应该支持实际从事这项工作的整个社区，否则它只能保护一小部分需要它的人。

While structural fixes are pending, operators should also build household contingency plans with their families, as servicemembers do before deployment.

虽然结构性修复尚未完成，但运营商还应与家人一起制定家庭应急计划，就像军人在部署前所做的那样。

The plan should acknowledge no-notice recalls, inverted shifts, and a command point of contact a spouse can reach when their loved one is unreachable, giving the family a chance to work through these challenges before they face them for the first time at 2 a.m.

该计划应考虑无通知召回、倒班以及配偶在无法联系到亲人时可以联系的指挥点，让家人有机会在凌晨 2 点第一次面对这些挑战之前解决这些挑战。

This preparation will not prevent every crisis or solve the underlying structural problem, but it can reduce what a household has to improvise while the larger fix takes years.

这种准备工作并不能防止每一次危机或解决根本的结构性问题，但它可以减少家庭必须临时采取的措施，而更大的解决方案则需要数年时间。

The community carrying this burden will grow.

承担这一负担的社区将会增长。

U.S. operations are increasingly waged at a distance by servicemembers who go home at shift’s end.

美国的行动越来越多地由服役人员在轮班结束后回家进行。

Cyber operations, space missions, and remote aircraft look like progress: no deployment, no separation.

网络作战、太空任务和远程飞机看起来像是进步：无需部署，无需分离。

Each still asks servicemembers to experience operational missions and ordinary lives in the same day.

每个人仍然要求军人在同一天体验作战任务和日常生活。

A separate cyber service , which I supported as a member of the Cyber Force Commission, would be better positioned to own force generation and the welfare of the people who do this work.

我作为网络部队委员会的成员支持成立一个独立的网络服务部门，该部门将能够更好地掌控部队的生成和从事这项工作的人员的福利。

Suicide is the most extreme outcome, but many more live with the effects of a double life, including burnout and attrition, which the command’s own leader has told senators remains high .

自杀是最极端的结果，但更多人生活在双重生活的影响下，包括倦怠和消耗，该司令部的领导人告诉参议员，这种情况仍然很高。

The Pentagon can treat this as a distinct operational environment and build the protections that go with it, or it can keep asking servicemembers and their families to carry the dual burdens alone.

五角大楼可以将其视为一个独特的作战环境，并建立与之相伴的保护措施，也可以继续要求军人及其家人独自承担双重负担。

Kurt Sanger is a cybersecurity and data privacy attorney with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC.

Kurt Sanger 是 Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC 的网络安全和数据隐私律师。

He is a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who served as a judge advocate for 23 years, the last eight with U.S. Cyber Command.

他是一名退役海军陆战队中校，曾担任法官辩护律师 23 年，其中最后 8 年在美国网络司令部任职。