In what may be the most public acknowledgment of its cyber operations capabilities to date, the Pentagon has admitted that cyber soldiers are playing a key role in its attacks on Iran. 

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, discussed cyber operations in the same breath as traditional military domains during a Monday press conference he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held to discuss the state of "Operation Epic Fury," as the dudes at the "Department of War" have taken to calling the US' ongoing strike on the Middle Eastern nation. 

"Across every domain, land, air, sea, cyber, the U.S. Joint Force delivered synchronized and layered effects designed to disrupt, degrade, deny and destroy Iran's ability to conduct and sustain combat operations," Caine said. 

Operators with US Cyber Command and Space Command were first movers in the invasion of Iran, "layering non-kinetic effects, disrupting and degrading and blinding Iran," Caine added. "Coordinated space and cyber operations effectively disrupted communications and sensor networks across the area of responsibility, leaving the adversary without the ability to see, coordinate, or respond effectively."

Caine didn't offer many details about the nature of what Space and Cyber Command troops did, exactly, and the Pentagon didn't offer any additional information when asked. Nonetheless, it marks a surprising elevation of the profile of cyber operations, which have classically been something that didn't get discussed much - at least until the second Trump administration.

Of course, it's a safe assumption that the US has long had offensive cyber operators on the payroll - just look at Stuxnet - and CYBERCOM was mentioned in Caine's earlier briefing on operations in Venezuela. Caine only mentioned them by name, however, saying nothing of their involvement. That was all Trump. 

"It was dark, the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have, it was dark, and it was deadly," Trump said during the same Venezuela press conference Caine spoke at. 

• Iran all but vanishes from the global internet amid US-Israel strikes
• Iran war wreaking havoc on shipping and air cargo, could create global delays
• Popular prayer program becomes propaganda pusher after reported Israeli hack
• Iran's cyberwar has begun

We’re not saying the US president’s loose lips led the Pentagon to frontload mentions of “yeah, our hackers did stuff too” in official after-action reports, but there’s a lot more up-front acknowledgment of it in this unprovoked war.

"In support of … kinetic operations, USCYBERCOM and SPACECOM have continuously layered effects to disrupt, disorient, and confuse the enemy," Caine said. The heavy integration of kinetic and non-kinetic strategies, Caine added, isn’t just an opening salvo in a new paradigm of cyber-first warfare, but something likely to continue during the Iran operation and beyond. 

That's right - what's going on in Iran "is major combat operations" unlikely to wrap up soon, Caine said. 

"The military objectives that CENTCOM and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases, will be difficult and gritty work," The chairman added. It seems we can expect cyber operatives to be right alongside troops in the field - from behind the comfort of a terminal, naturally. ®