The Defense Department could release its next overarching cyber strategy as early as next week, with an action plan expected to accompany it. Three people familiar with the plan told Defense One that officials are aiming for an early-week publication, although the timing remains subject to change and one person predicted Tuesday.

The strategy has been under development for months by the office of Katie Sutton, the assistant defense secretary for cyber policy and principal cyber adviser to the secretary. It would be the Pentagon’s first broad cyber framework since 2023, after an earlier target of completing the document during the summer.

Sutton’s priorities, previewed in testimony to lawmakers, point to a framework built around three objectives: integrating cyber capabilities across every domain of warfare, gaining an advantage over adversaries, and reorganizing military cyber forces to improve their skill and agility. The stated goal is to strengthen the military’s ability to defend its networks, create strategic advantages and give the president more options in a conflict.

The approach would place cyber operations more routinely inside military planning. Capabilities that can disrupt an adversary’s communications or computer systems would be considered alongside air operations and other conventional missions, rather than treated as a separate activity. Officials have cited recent Trump-era operations in Venezuela and Iran as examples of this kind of integration.

The planned framework would also convert the White House’s March cyber strategy into military priorities and investments. That strategy called for using the government’s offensive and defensive cyber capabilities, disrupting threats before they reach U.S. networks and imposing greater consequences on foreign hackers. The Pentagon’s existing “defend forward” posture, adopted in its 2023 strategy, already calls for confronting malicious activity closer to its source.

The new strategy is expected to emphasize providing cyber options to combatant commanders and integrating them with conventional military power. That would build on the department’s existing approach while giving commanders a more direct role in using cyber capabilities as part of military campaigns.

Artificial intelligence is expected to receive prominent attention. Sutton said in June that the strategy would establish a specific vision for using AI across the cyber force, with coordination among U.S. Cyber Command, the Pentagon’s chief information office and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. The Pentagon and National Security Agency have also been expanding access to commercial models intended to identify vulnerabilities and automate parts of cyber operations.

The strategy is closely linked to Cyber Command 2.0, an effort to change how the military recruits, trains and employs cyber personnel. That initiative emphasizes specialized, purpose-built teams and a Cyber Innovation Warfare Center designed to bring commercial technology to operators for testing.

A Parsons job posting cited in the Defense One report describes an action plan with about nine strategic initiatives and 34 lines of effort. The posting does not disclose the contents of those initiatives or establish when it was made. The expected plan would provide the implementation structure for the broader strategy, but its details have not been publicly described.

The document would set the Pentagon’s overarching direction for cyber operations after months of development. Its expected emphasis on offensive and defensive capabilities, artificial intelligence, closer integration with military planning and changes to the cyber workforce reflects the department’s effort to make digital operations a routine part of U.S. military campaigns.