WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s next cyber strategy is expected to prioritize major offensive outcomes for the defense secretary and President Donald Trump, according to Brig. Gen. William Wilburn, the department’s deputy principal cyber adviser.
“We often hear about offense versus defense … but defense in itself is not the outcome; it’s not the goal,” Wilburn said Wednesday at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit. “It is to allow us to go on offense with something big, something muscular, and something that will drive the outcomes. Our strategy attempts to do that.”
The forthcoming document will be the first Pentagon cyber strategy issued since the Biden administration released its 2023 version. Officials have previously suggested that it will define the cyber force’s use of artificial intelligence, while a draft reported by Politico appeared to envision greater participation from private companies in hacking operations.
The Pentagon plan follows the national cyber strategy released in March, which called for a more proactive and offensive posture in cyberspace consistent with the Trump administration’s approach.
Cyber operations have long been integrated with conventional military activity, but Pentagon officials have increasingly emphasized their role in recent operations under Trump. Those efforts include Operation Midnight Hammer, Operation Absolute Resolve and Operation Epic Fury.
Wilburn said the department wants to provide senior leaders with the tools and options needed during crises and conflicts.
“The takeaway is, it’s about driving big outcomes and giving the secretary and the president options, more options,” he said. “We want to move away from things that look like persistent engagement. We want to go to higher impact options. What we’re trying to do is drive those outcomes in a way that we haven’t seen done before.”
“Persistent engagement” is a U.S. Cyber Command concept dating to 2018. It calls for Pentagon cyber operators to contest adversaries’ activities more actively in cyberspace, including through “defending forward” efforts intended to disrupt attacks on U.S. targets before they occur.
Wilburn said daily engagement would continue, but suggested that it would adopt a more assertive posture. Although he provided few operational details, he described the approach as one of “confrontation.”
“The outcomes that we want to achieve [are] very clear,” he said. “We want to ensure that the US is safe, the homeland is safe, that adversaries aren’t able to challenge us, and if so, we’re able to deliver the outcomes that again the department and the nation need.”
The strategy will also contain an action plan designed to turn those objectives into reality rather than leaving them “sit[ting] on the shelf,” Wilburn said.


