It's not that hard to train people in offensive and defensive security ops - it just takes effort and commitment.
When I was working for a Vendor, we'd often train Jarheads, Squids, etc in IOW MOSes technolgies and techniques for offensive and defensive capabilities.
Most other regional powers have built out a similar talent pipeline - it's very doable now that computing has diffused globally.
Heck, LE in plenty of countries now has capabilities comparable to the Five Eyes circa 10-15 years ago.
Except most branches are having an extremely difficult time filling those roles. They're even considering things as drastic as bringing civilians into those roles at an O5 grade. Pretty desperate.
> Except most branches are having an extremely difficult time filling those roles
Most of the issues with recruitment tend to be less skilled MOSes like Infantry.
IOW, Intel, and Cyber MOSes are given a fast track to NCO and very good post-military careers, along with a decent entry pipeline via ROTC or Training Schools for enlistees like JCAC.
Most vendors and large tech companies (eg. GCP, MS Azure and Security, PANW, Cisco, AWS, etc) will often hire ex-Intel and Cyber trainees in lieu of a bachelors degree, so it's often a very affordable path to high paying tech jobs (Sales Engineering, Systems Engineering, Support Engineering, etc).
> bringing civilians into those roles at an O5 grade
Pardon my French, but that's bullshit. Only the newly created Cyber Warfare Officer in the Marines is at O-5 (largely due to budget and staffing issues w/ the Marines because it's competing for the same pot of money as the Navy), and they have to go through Officer Training School in VA.
Most entry level cyber roles are WO level (primarily W-1) or E1-3 if you are going to JCAC at NIOC Pensacola, and most Cybersecurity work was historically done by the Navy because Sigint was historically under the Navy, as all the IT and Cyber MOSes would get trained at NIOC Pensacola (none of this is classified btw)
IOW and Cyber are desk jobs - doing the whole shebang of military training is unnecessary, and competitors like China, Russia, etc exempt their equivalents in these MOSes from bootcamp, and they tend to require a degree or a civilian career for those same roles as well.
Also, these roles tend to require at minimum an Associates degree in Computers/Networking/IT, so plenty of grunts do upskill and get that via online programs like the AFIT, AMU, etc and then upskill after a couple years via Grants or get hired as Sales or Field Engineers at vendors.
> Lol is it bullshit if you're acknowledging that it's happening
Army, Navy, and Air Force all train their versions of CWO from enlistee all the way to civilian hire - they all send their enlistees to JCAC in Augusta GA or Penascola FL.
The USMC has a fraction of the budget of the big 3 forces because it's from the same bucket as the Navy, and as such limits recruitment to those who need minimal training.
Most hiring is still done at the enlistee level with 170a [0].
The direct commission was added in 2019-early 2020s because there were a decent number of enlistees with Bachelors degrees but no direct path to a full officer position in a Cyber MOS.
When I was working for a Vendor, we'd often train Jarheads, Squids, etc in IOW MOSes technolgies and techniques for offensive and defensive capabilities.
Most other regional powers have built out a similar talent pipeline - it's very doable now that computing has diffused globally.
Heck, LE in plenty of countries now has capabilities comparable to the Five Eyes circa 10-15 years ago.