How should cyber effects be integrated into targeting processes in LSCO?

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In LSCO, cyber effects are part of how you shape and achieve targeting outcomes across the battlespace. Cyber operations can degrade or disrupt an adversary’s command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and critical logistics networks, often at tempo and precision that complements kinetic actions. Because of that, cyber objectives belong in the targeting cycle—from target development through execution and assessment. You evaluate cyber targets for their potential to produce meaningful operational effects, determine how significant those effects would be, and then coordinate with other fires so the cyber and kinetic actions reinforce one another. This coordination creates greater overall impact than either domain could achieve alone and helps synchronize timing, location, and magnitude of effects.

Excluding cyber or treating it separately misses how integrated operations function in practice. Waiting until after kinetic strikes delays leverage of cyber effects that could prevent enemy movement, degrade resilience, or condition the battle space for follow-on actions. Targeting only physical infrastructure ignores the networks, data, and C2 links that can cripple an opponent’s ability to fight, respond, or sustain operations. So the best approach is to embed cyber objectives into the targeting process, assess their operational significance, and work with other fires to achieve synergistic effects.