A colonel in the U.S. Air Force argued in a recent opinion piece that the United States needs to build its own collection of computers able to digitally “carpet bomb” enemies with a denial-of-service attack.

The capability to overwhelm attackers would help the nation deter attacks against its systems, Col. Charles Williamson III, a staff judge advocate for the U.S. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, stated in an opinion piece in the Armed Forces Journal. Military bases could use outdated PCs as nodes on its “botnet,” replacing their hard drives with a simple flash drives.

“America needs the ability to carpet bomb in cyberspace to create the deterrent we lack,” Col. Williamson wrote. “America faces increasingly sophisticated threats against its military and civilian cyberspace. At the same time, America has no credible deterrent, and our adversaries prove it every day by attacking everywhere.”
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