Cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure or networks could be met with a conventional military response, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Thursday.

"There is an assumption out there ... that a cyberattack that had destructive effects would be met by a cyber response that had destructive effects," Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told an audience at a Brookings Institution forum. "That's not necessarily the case. I think that what (President Barack Obama) would insist upon, actually, is that he had the options and the freedom of movement to decide what kind of response we would employ."

The impact of a cyberattack is a key question for elected officials to answer when considering the level of response, Dempsey said. "Cyber is a physical domain in the sense that it is operated by men and women over routers and servers, and cyberattacks can result in real, physical damage," he explained.

"I do think that there are capabilities out there that are so destructive in nature and potential that it would be very difficult not to see them as acts of war," the military chief said, but he noted, "the decision to declare something a hostile act -- an act of war -- is certainly one that resides in the responsibility of our elected leaders."

U.S. Cyber Command, currently a subunified command under U.S. Strategic Command, likely will one day become a separate command, Dempsey said.

Noting that cyber threat will only continue to grow, the General told the gathering that he anticipated a day when operations in cyberspace become a dominant factor in military operations.

"But, at this point, Stratcom, with its global reach responsibilities, as well as its space responsibilities, is also able to manage the workload that comes with being the next senior headquarters to Cybercom," Dempsey said.

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