Key facts
- Brig. Gen. Michael Smith said cyber operators moved from Maryland to Hawaii under Cyber Defense Forces Pacific.
- The personnel came from the Department of Defense Cyber Defense Command and were assigned to DISA-Pacific.
- Smith said the newcomers provide "a level of additional cybersecurity defense here in this theater."
- Neither the Hawaii expansion nor the regional center has been explicitly linked to China.
The US military has expanded its cybersecurity presence in Hawaii and set up a regional center to better detect threats and disruptions to its Pacific communications networks, Breaking Defense reported on November 6, 2026.
Brig. Gen. Michael Smith, director for command, control, communications, computers and cyber at US Pacific Command, told the TechNet Indo-Pacific Conference that cyber operators had been moved from Maryland to Hawaii under a concept called Cyber Defense Forces Pacific. The personnel were drawn from the Department of Defense Cyber Defense Command, which is based at Fort Meade, Maryland, and falls under US Cyber Command. They were assigned to DISA-Pacific, the regional field command of the Defense Information Systems Agency.